Baldwin, Kate, and Pia Raffler. "Traditional Leaders, Service Delivery, And Electoral Accountability." Decentralized Governance and Accountability(2019):61-90
The article examines the effect of traditional leadership on the provision of goods and services for the local populace, in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors note that traditional leadership is relatively powerful in countries like Ghana and Botswana whilst they have little or no power in countries such as Madagascar and Tanzania. Most recently, they have become informal administrators and intermediaries between their communities and larger state institutions. Using Ghana as an example, the authors argue that new forms of chieftaincies keep emerging as chiefs are not only confined to rural spaces but are also involved in modern governance and as local elites as governments work with chiefs to administer services as dispute resolution. The authors further argue that the two reasons why traditional leadership keeps resurging are first, socio-cultural and political significance of chiefs as representatives of their ethnic communities and second, their intermediary position as power brokers. In Ghana the state has mingled chieftaincy with the larger political system which makes the state a propounder of the chieftaincy system. Thus, the process of state formation involves changes in the roles of elite’s and changes in sources of power, leading to a situation where the basis of power of local elites becomes intertwined with or depends on the state. In communities where the chiefs are deemed stronger or influential or connected to public or elected officials, they are likely to receive more public goods. Sometimes the status of the traditional leaders depends on the state. Other times, chiefs can be so powerful in their local communities that they can leverage that power to determine political votes and in turn negotiate for improved service delivery for their communities.
