Citizen participation in water and sanitation management

Abstract

This article analyzes how the adoption of citizen participation objectives improved public accountability in water and sanitation management, during the Frente Amplio governments in Uruguay (2005-2020). It is argued that there is a causal relationship between greater non-electoral vertical control and the formulation of a participatory policy. The methodological design was a comparative qualitative analysis, using a reconstitution of processes (process traicing), based on the analytical framework of public policies design. The evidence found, based on State instruments (Hood, 1987), reveals that citizen participation improved democratic controls in water and sanitation policy. This was so because, upon coming to power, the Frente Amplio government adopted explicit objectives of citizen participation in its public policies, which produced a deployment of the institutional devices of the State to formulate laws, create instances and promulgate decrees that made different state institutions work together with state and non-state actors linked to sectoral policy.