Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan

Direct democracy is designed to better align public resource allocation decisions with citizen preferences. Using a randomized field experiment in 250 villages across Afghanistan, this paper compares outcomes of secret-ballot referenda with those o...

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Main Authors:	Beath, Andrew, Christia, Fotini, Enikolopov, Ruben
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	ACCOUNTABILITY BENEFICIARY ASSESSMENTS BRIDGE PROJECT CENTRAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONSENSUS CONSULTATION CONSULTATIONS COUNTRYSIDE DATA COLLECTION DECISION MAKING DECISION-MAKING PROCESS DECISIONMAKING DEMOCRACY DIRECT DEMOCRACY DISTRICT LEVEL DISTRICTS DRINKING WATER ELECTION ELECTIONS ELIGIBLE VOTERS EQUALITY FEMALE FEMALES FIELD EXPERIMENT FOCUS GROUP GENDER HOUSEHOLDS INTEREST GROUPS INTERVENTION INTERVENTIONS INTERVIEWS LINE MINISTRIES LIVESTOCK LOCAL DEVELOPMENT LOCAL PARTICIPATION MEDICAL SERVICES POLICY STUDIES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POLITICAL PROCESSES POWER-HOLDERS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PUBLIC POLICY RECONSTRUCTION RURAL AREAS RURAL COMMUNITIES RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION SHEEP SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL PROTECTION SUFFRAGE VILLAGE VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGE MEETINGS VILLAGER VILLAGERS VILLAGES YOUTH
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/07/16506743/direct-democracy-resource-allocation-experimental-evidence-afghanistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11946

id	okr-10986-11946
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-119462021-04-23T14:02:58Z Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan Beath, Andrew Christia, Fotini Enikolopov, Ruben ACCOUNTABILITY BENEFICIARY ASSESSMENTS BRIDGE PROJECT CENTRAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONSENSUS CONSULTATION CONSULTATIONS COUNTRYSIDE DATA COLLECTION DECISION MAKING DECISION-MAKING PROCESS DECISIONMAKING DEMOCRACY DIRECT DEMOCRACY DISTRICT LEVEL DISTRICTS DRINKING WATER ELECTION ELECTIONS ELIGIBLE VOTERS EQUALITY FEMALE FEMALES FIELD EXPERIMENT FOCUS GROUP GENDER HOUSEHOLDS INTEREST GROUPS INTERVENTION INTERVENTIONS INTERVIEWS LINE MINISTRIES LIVESTOCK LOCAL DEVELOPMENT LOCAL PARTICIPATION MEDICAL SERVICES POLICY STUDIES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POLITICAL PROCESSES POWER-HOLDERS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PUBLIC POLICY RECONSTRUCTION RURAL AREAS RURAL COMMUNITIES RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION SHEEP SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL PROTECTION SUFFRAGE VILLAGE VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGE MEETINGS VILLAGER VILLAGERS VILLAGES YOUTH Direct democracy is designed to better align public resource allocation decisions with citizen preferences. Using a randomized field experiment in 250 villages across Afghanistan, this paper compares outcomes of secret-ballot referenda with those of consultation meetings, which adhere to customary decision-making practices. Elites are found to exert influence over meeting outcomes, but not over referenda outcomes, which are driven primarily by citizen preferences. Referenda are also found to improve public satisfaction, whereas elite domination of allocation processes has a negative effect. The results indicate that the use of direct democracy in public resource allocation results in more legitimate outcomes than those produced by customary processes. 2012-12-07T23:10:43Z 2012-12-07T23:10:43Z 2012-07 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/07/16506743/direct-democracy-resource-allocation-experimental-evidence-afghanistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11946 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6133 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia Afghanistan
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	ACCOUNTABILITY BENEFICIARY ASSESSMENTS BRIDGE PROJECT CENTRAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONSENSUS CONSULTATION CONSULTATIONS COUNTRYSIDE DATA COLLECTION DECISION MAKING DECISION-MAKING PROCESS DECISIONMAKING DEMOCRACY DIRECT DEMOCRACY DISTRICT LEVEL DISTRICTS DRINKING WATER ELECTION ELECTIONS ELIGIBLE VOTERS EQUALITY FEMALE FEMALES FIELD EXPERIMENT FOCUS GROUP GENDER HOUSEHOLDS INTEREST GROUPS INTERVENTION INTERVENTIONS INTERVIEWS LINE MINISTRIES LIVESTOCK LOCAL DEVELOPMENT LOCAL PARTICIPATION MEDICAL SERVICES POLICY STUDIES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POLITICAL PROCESSES POWER-HOLDERS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PUBLIC POLICY RECONSTRUCTION RURAL AREAS RURAL COMMUNITIES RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION SHEEP SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL PROTECTION SUFFRAGE VILLAGE VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGE MEETINGS VILLAGER VILLAGERS VILLAGES YOUTH
spellingShingle	ACCOUNTABILITY BENEFICIARY ASSESSMENTS BRIDGE PROJECT CENTRAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONSENSUS CONSULTATION CONSULTATIONS COUNTRYSIDE DATA COLLECTION DECISION MAKING DECISION-MAKING PROCESS DECISIONMAKING DEMOCRACY DIRECT DEMOCRACY DISTRICT LEVEL DISTRICTS DRINKING WATER ELECTION ELECTIONS ELIGIBLE VOTERS EQUALITY FEMALE FEMALES FIELD EXPERIMENT FOCUS GROUP GENDER HOUSEHOLDS INTEREST GROUPS INTERVENTION INTERVENTIONS INTERVIEWS LINE MINISTRIES LIVESTOCK LOCAL DEVELOPMENT LOCAL PARTICIPATION MEDICAL SERVICES POLICY STUDIES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION POLITICAL PROCESSES POWER-HOLDERS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PUBLIC POLICY RECONSTRUCTION RURAL AREAS RURAL COMMUNITIES RURAL DEVELOPMENT RURAL POPULATION SHEEP SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL PROTECTION SUFFRAGE VILLAGE VILLAGE LEVEL VILLAGE MEETINGS VILLAGER VILLAGERS VILLAGES YOUTH Beath, Andrew Christia, Fotini Enikolopov, Ruben Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
geographic_facet	South Asia Afghanistan
relation	Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6133
description	Direct democracy is designed to better align public resource allocation decisions with citizen preferences. Using a randomized field experiment in 250 villages across Afghanistan, this paper compares outcomes of secret-ballot referenda with those of consultation meetings, which adhere to customary decision-making practices. Elites are found to exert influence over meeting outcomes, but not over referenda outcomes, which are driven primarily by citizen preferences. Referenda are also found to improve public satisfaction, whereas elite domination of allocation processes has a negative effect. The results indicate that the use of direct democracy in public resource allocation results in more legitimate outcomes than those produced by customary processes.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Beath, Andrew Christia, Fotini Enikolopov, Ruben
author_facet	Beath, Andrew Christia, Fotini Enikolopov, Ruben
author_sort	Beath, Andrew
title	Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
title_short	Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
title_full	Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
title_fullStr	Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
title_full_unstemmed	Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
title_sort	direct democracy and resource allocation : experimental evidence from afghanistan
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2012
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/07/16506743/direct-democracy-resource-allocation-experimental-evidence-afghanistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11946
_version_	1764418566192365568

Direct Democracy and Resource Allocation : Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan

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