New study by PIIRS Postdoctoral Fellow presents novel accountability-based approach to civic education

Civic education has long been the default response to youth political disengagement, yet its effectiveness in fostering meaningful participation beyond the classroom remains an open question. This focus on classroom instruction has also left little evidence of the efficacy of alternative approaches, such as experiential learning, in which young people are guided through the process of acting on behalf of issues they care about.

In a new study in Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Akshay Govind Dixit, a PIIRS Postdoctoral Fellow, and his co-author evaluate one such alternative: an accountability-based approach to civic education that enables young people to hold local authorities to account for the quality of public services. “Civic education is usually something done to young people, not by them,” he said. “Our study shows that when young people are given a platform to hold their authorities to account, they become more empowered, knowledgeable and engaged with the politics of their community and country.”

The researchers worked in partnership with two NGOs in Bangladesh with the support of Save the Children International and provided 2,861 participants ages 10 to 18 with the opportunity to learn about their entitlements to education and healthcare, assess the quality of education or healthcare in their community as a group and collectively meet with their providers to demand improvements. Participants were randomly assigned to the accountability program, or to a comparison group that received only information about their rights. “We found that participants in the accountability program reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy — a greater belief in their ability to control their own life’s outcomes and persist in the face of obstacles,” Dixit said. “Participants reported a stronger sense that the government, both local and national, is responsive to the concerns of people like them. Participation also significantly increased participants' knowledge of politics. They discussed politics with more people and were more likely to follow the news on political affairs. Participation in a local accountability program, in other words, sparked a curiosity about government and politics that went well beyond the locality.”

Dixit’s research carries resonance given recent political developments in South Asia, such as the student-led movement that overthrew an increasingly authoritarian regime in Bangladesh in August 2024 and Nepal’s “Gen Z” protests, a student-led, digitally coordinated anti-corruption movement that escalated into nationwide unrest and ultimately forced the resignation the prime minister. “Such movements raise important questions about how to sustain youth engagement in politics beyond moments of crisis. Our study shows how the everyday practice of accountability enables young citizens to remain engaged as a part of civic life.”

“In a couple more years, everyone who participated in this program would have had the opportunity to cast a ballot in local and national elections, join a union, work with a political party or get involved in politics in other ways,” he added. “Our findings point to the need for more research on interventions that equip young people in the Global South with the tools they need to be active, informed citizens. Despite growing interest in youth political participation, strategies to enhance civic and political engagement among young people in developing countries remain understudied, and experimental evaluations are especially rare.”

This study was supported by Save the Children UK and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

The study “Empowering young citizens through the practice of accountability: an experiment in Bangladesh” was published in the journal Quarterly Journal of Political Science on March 12, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QJPS-08-2024-0121.