Rationalities in motivation for citizen participation in social accountability: a Brazilian local experience

Abstract This work aims to understand the motivation and factors that influence active participation in social accountability, contributing to literature on public administration in a field which is not fully explored. This study provides elements to help public actors to strengthen initiatives of citizens’ engagement in public management, especially by working with civil society organizations. The main theoretical approaches are the instrumental and the substantive rationality in public organizations, as well as the motivation for citizen participation. Information was collected through in-depth interviews. Content analysis was used to examine the information, allowing to achieve the objectives of the study. The main results indicate the complementarity of both instrumental and substantive rationality in motivating citizen participation in initiatives of social accountability. The motivation to participate comes from the value given to social accountability, which is related to substantive rationality, while the instrumental rationality appears as a means of ensuring the efficiency and the effectiveness of citizens’ community actions.