CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY

4604 WD

A good case study promotes an active dialogue between theory and data. In her case study of rural China, Lily Tsai manages to keep this dialogue alive. Tsai’s aim is clearly stated: to investigate how public goods can be provided even in non-democratic systems where the public’s influence over local government is mostly limited to informal mechanisms. Specifically, she looks at the incentives of local public officials to provide public goods in such contexts. However, it can be questioned to what extent the theory was outlined to fit the data. Scholars argue that theoretical propositions should be a guide to empirical exploration (Hay, 2002; Yin, 2009). In that sense, as we will see below, we may ask to what extent Tsai’s study rather is an example of the opposite, namely that the empirical research seems to partly guide the theory.

Tsai proposes a model of what she calls “informal governmental accountability”, according to which local officials may have strong incentives to provide public goods, even when formal government accountability is weak, if citizen solidarity groups award them moral standing for doing so. Her hypothesis is hence that villages with greater social solidarity will experience better governance due to a higher level of social trust and mutual obligation. To create the needed conditions and incentives for