Social Accountability in Spain. The role of civil society organizations in promoting good governance during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Success in building good governance requires the confluence of at least three variables: a) a critical juncture; b) initial reforms to generate horizontal accountability organizations; and c) a coalition of diverse political and social forces with sufficient capacity to overcome the collective action obstacles and the veto points of the system. This article investigates the work developed by NGOs in this coalition during the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Following the grounded theory approach, two sensitization concepts were used, namely, «good governance» and «social accountability». With all this, twenty NGOs were identified to narrate the control on governance integrity in Spain. Campaigns were defined as the target unit of study and, after a theoretical analysis and literature review, the understanding of success in this type of social control activities was established. Finally, two campaigns developed during the pandemic were analyzed from the NGOs’ point of view. These campaigns showed the importance that NGOs in this field give to a strategic approach instead of mere confrontation and, more in particular, the importance of working in an internal coalition and with public actors engaged in horizontal accountability