Working Paper: NBER ID: w19949
Authors: Eli Berman; Michael Callen; Clark Gibson; James D. Long
Abstract: International development agencies invest heavily in institution building in fragile states, including expensive interventions to support democratic elections. Yet little evidence exists on whether elections enhance the domestic legitimacy of governments. Using the random assignment of an innovative election fraud-reducing intervention in Afghanistan, we find that decreasing electoral misconduct improves multiple survey measures of attitudes toward government, including: (1) whether Afghanistan is a democracy; (2) whether the police should resolve disputes; (3) whether members of parliament provide services; and (4) willingness to report insurgent behavior to security forces.
Keywords: election fairness; government legitimacy; Afghanistan; democratic elections
JEL Codes: H41; O10; O17; O53; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| decreasing electoral misconduct (K16) | improved attitudes toward the government (H11) |
| decreasing electoral misconduct (K16) | perceived legitimacy (P37) |
| fairer elections (K16) | perceive Afghanistan as a democracy (P27) |
| fairer elections (K16) | trust the police to resolve disputes (J52) |
| fairer elections (K16) | believe that members of parliament provide services (H11) |
| fairer elections (K16) | express willingness to report insurgent behavior to security forces (F51) |