A broad consensus has emerged among practitioners
and researchers that failure to build accountable and
legitimate institutions is a critical risk factor associated
with vicious circles of repeated violence. Despite this
consensus, very few studies have tested the extent to
which local government performance and decentralized
service provision shape citizens’ beliefs toward political
authorities. This paper contributes to fill this gap
by examining the antecedents of trustworthy local
government authorities in a post-conflict and fragile
setting, Sierra Leone. Taking advantage of a unique
longitudinal survey, the National Public Services, it
examines the impact of sub-national variation in local
government performance on citizens’ beliefs about
the trustworthiness of local government authorities.
To test the hypothesis, it uses multilevel models to
exploit variation over time and within and across subnational
units in Sierra Leone. The results suggest that
improvements in the quality of decentralized service
delivery, as well as perceptions of local councillors’
honesty, are positively associated with perceptions of local
government officials as trustworthy political authorities.
These findings speak to the possibility that local service
provision can play a role in shaping the relationships
between citizens and the state and in overcoming the root
causes of fragility and conflict.