Governmental responsiveness to citizens' petitions in Ecuador

Abstract

Participatory democracy requires channels of participation for citizens to voice their needs, complaints, and proposals. Some countries have opted for public meetings as a channel to collect citizens’ input. However, literature provides scarce empirical studies as to whether national governments respond to citizens’ petitions collected through public meetings. Much less is known about the political, geographic, and administrative factors influencing government responsiveness to citizens’ requests. This study examines citizen petitions through local public meetings to the national government across 202 Ecuadorian municipalities between 2007 and 2015. Results show that national government responsiveness varies across policy areas. In fact, the Ecuadorian national government responded more effectively to environmental-related citizen requests than to petitions in the social sector. Moreover, findings reveal that the timing of response and implementation of citizen requests matches with the electoral cycle. The Ecuadorian national government responded more effectively to citizen petitions during electoral years.