africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
In sum, the principal idea underlying these experiments is that reforms that increase
participation during elections in the form of town hall meetings could help
improve the quality of elections and decrease the instances of clientelist practices.
Moreover, because such meetings are less expensive than traditional campaign
rallies—which often reinforce patronage and clientelist systems—such a shift
would be preferable for the candidates as well. Finally, I believe this model of
town hall-style meetings may be translated to other contexts beyond elections,
and could be used to improve the quality of local bureaucracies. By promoting
citizen engagement through town hall meetings with local bureaucrats, local officials
may become transparent and motivated to do quality work, thus facilitating
the provision of public goods, increasing the quality of governance, and promoting
development in Africa.
References
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, James Robinson, and Pierre Yared, 2008.
“Income and Democracy,” American Economic Review 98 (3): 808-842.
Fujiwara, Thomas, and Leonard Wantchekon, 2013. “Can Informed Public Deliberation
Overcome Clientelism? Experimental Evidence from Benin,” American
Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5(4): 241- 255.
Sen, Amartya, 1999. Democracy as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wantchekon, Leonard, 2012. “Democracy and Development.” In Ernest Aryeetey,
Shantayanan Devarajan, Ravi Kanbur, and Louis Kasekende (eds.), Oxford
Companion to the Economics of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______, 2013. “Policy Deliberation and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Campaign
Experiment in Benin.” Working Paper. Princeton University.
Wantchekon, Leonard, and Omar Garcia Ponce, 2014. “Critical Junctures: Independence
Movements and Democracy in Africa.” Working Paper. Princeton
University.
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