Decentralization and accountability : are voters more vigilant in local than in national elections ?

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Decentralization and accountability : are voters more vigilant in local than in national elections ?, Volume 1

Author:	Khemani, Stuti;	Collection Title:	Policy, Research working paper ; no. WPS 2557
Country:	India;	Date Stored:	2001/03/26
Document Date:	2001/02/28	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Major Sector:	Public Administration, Law, and Justice
Region:	South Asia	Report Number:	WPS2557
Sub Sectors:	Decentralization	SubTopics:	Election Systems; Economic Theory & Research; National Governance; Parliamentary Government; Politics and Government
Volume No:	1

Summary: Defining vigilance as retrospective voting - where voters evaluate incumbents on their performance during their entire term in office - the author compares voter behavior in local and national elections to make inferences about whether voters are more vigilant in monitoring government at the local level. Using data from 14 major states in India over the period 1960-92, she contrasts voters' behavior in state legislative assembly elections with their behavior in national legislative elections. In state assembly elections voter reward incumbents for local income growth, and punish them for a rise in inequality, over their entire term in office. But in national elections voters behave myopically, rewarding growth in national income and a fall in inflation and inequality only in the year preceding the election. The evidence is consistent with greater voter vigilance and government accountability in local than in national elections.


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File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 30 pages	Official version*	2.1 (approx.)
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	PDF 25 pages	WPS2557	0.07

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