Working Paper: NBER ID: w26160
Authors: Katherine Casey; Abou Bakarr Kamara; Niccol Meriggi
Abstract: Are ordinary citizens or political party leaders better positioned to select candidates? While the American primary system lets citizens choose, most democracies rely instead on party officials to appoint or nominate candidates. The consequences of these distinct design choices are unclear: while officials are often better informed about candidate qualifications, they may value traits—like party loyalty or willingness to pay for the nomination—at odds with identifying the best performer. We partnered with both major political parties in Sierra Leone to experimentally vary how much say voters have in selecting Parliamentary candidates. Estimates suggest that more democratic procedures increase the likelihood that parties select voters’ most preferred candidates and favor candidates with stronger records of public goods provision.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: D72; H1; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| more democratic selection mechanism (D72) | likelihood of selecting candidates preferred by voters (D79) |
| more democratic selection mechanism (D72) | candidate quality (C52) |
| more democratic selection mechanism (D72) | selection of candidates with stronger public goods records (D79) |
| selection of candidates preferred by voters (D79) | party officials responsiveness to voter preferences (D72) |
| more democratic selection mechanism (D72) | representation (Y60) |
| more democratic selection mechanism (D72) | party's general election vote share (D79) |