Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia / Benjamin A. Olken.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olken, Benjamin A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14123.

NBER working paper series no. w14123

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

This paper presents an experiment where 48 Indonesian villages were randomly assigned to choose development projects through either representative-based meetings or direct election-based plebiscites. Plebiscites resulted in dramatically higher satisfaction among villagers, increased knowledge about the project, greater perceived benefits, and higher reported willingness to contribute. Changing the political mechanism had much smaller effects on the actual projects selected, with some evidence that plebiscites resulted in projects chosen by women being located in poorer areas. The results show that direct participation in political decision making can substantially increase satisfaction and legitimacy, even when it has little effect on actual decisions.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2008.