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Field
Abstract
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Before
What motivates people to seek political office? We design and evaluate an experiment to study how non-elite prospective politicians can be motivated to seek political office by priming them on career or pro-social benefits from entering politics, reducing the cost of filing for candidacy by offering the services of a lawyer, and providing a signal on individual-level electability. We interview prospective politicians at the village level, as well as the universe of people who declare candidacy in 210 villages. We study who decides to participate in a training we organize for elections, as well as in filing for candidacy. Finally we study who is voted into the village council.
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After
In this project, we design three experiments that provide the first experimental evidence on 1) what motivates people to seek political office, 2) how certain types of people can be encouraged to become politicians, and 3) whether voters care to put certain types of politicians in office. In the first experiment, we examine the process of candidacy by randomizing at the individual level three factors that contribute to a citizens decision to seek political office: 1) expected benefits, by making salient private or prosocial benefits from seeking office, 2) costs, by providing a lawyer to help file papers, and 3) the probability of election, by polling the village and providing this information to prospective politicians. In the second experiment, we consider specific policy responses that can be used to help certain types of people, such as the non- elite, to seek office. We test to see if messages delivered through canvassing and/or training can encourage people to participate in politics by seeking office. In the final experiment, we examine if voters care about who runs for political office. We run a get-out-the-vote experiment that provides random village-level variation in turnout at the village level. We use this experiment as an instrument for turnout to study how characteristics of the elected council change when marginal voters vote.
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Field
Trial End Date
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Before
July 31, 2015
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After
August 31, 2016
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Field
Last Published
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Before
April 12, 2015 08:56 PM
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After
November 02, 2015 01:20 PM
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Field
Data Collection Complete
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Before
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After
No
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
1. Delivery of career and social benefits from running for political office through canvassing and training
2. Delivery of information regarding electability
3. Services of a lawyer to help with paper filing
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After
1. Delivery of the salience of career and social benefits from running for political office through canvassing and training
2. Delivery of information regarding electability
3. Services of a lawyer to help with paper filing
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Field
Additional Keyword(s)
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Before
Elections, Political Selection
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After
Elections, Political Selection, Candidacy
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