Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Policy Deliberation and Ethical Voting

Thu, September 10, 2:00 to 3:30pm MDT (2:00 to 3:30pm MDT), TBA

Abstract

This paper provides experimental evidence on the effect of town hall meetings in advancing the normative goals of democracy. The intervention took place during the March 2011 elections in Benin and involved 150 randomly selected villages. In the treatment group candidates held town hall meetings where voters deliberated over their electoral platforms. The control group was exposed to the standard (clientelism style) campaign, i.e. one-way communication of the candidate's platform by himself or his local broker. We find that town-hall meetings led to a more informed citizenry, higher electoral participation, and lower policy polarization along demographic lines. We also observe a greater willingness to reject unethical behavior by politicians (vote-buying). This is consistent with town-hall deliberation leading to more ethical voting behavior.

Authors