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ID: 121125

Crossing the line: local ethnic geography and voting in Ghana / Ichino, Nahomi; Nathan, Noah L

Ichino, Nahomi	Journal Article
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2013.

Summary/Abstract

Theories of instrumental ethnic voting in new democracies propose that voters support co-ethnic politicians because they expect politicians to favor their co-ethnics once in office. But many goods that politicians deliver to voters are locally nonexcludable in rural areas, so the local presence of an ethnic group associated with a politician should affect a rural voter's assessment of how likely she is to benefit from that politician's election. Using geocoded polling-station-level election results alongside survey data from Ghana, we show that otherwise similar voters are less likely to vote for the party of their own ethnic group, and more likely to support a party associated with another group, when the local ethnic geography favors the other group. This result helps account for the imperfect correlation between ethnicity and vote choice in African democracies. More generally, this demonstrates how local community and geographic contexts can modify the information conveyed by ethnicity and influence voter behavior.

Key Words

Ghana ; Voters ; Voting ; Local Ethnic Geography ; Co - Ethnic Politicians ; Iran - Democracy - 1941-1953

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ID: 167977

Electoral Consequences of Colonial Invention: Brokers, Chiefs, and Distribution in Northern Ghana / Nathan, Noah L

Nathan, Noah L	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This article studies the effects of traditional chiefs—a common type of broker—on voters’ ability to extract state resources from politicians. Using original data from Northern Ghana, the author shows that chieftaincy positions invented by colonial authorities are especially prone to capture, leaving voters worse off compared both to more accountable chiefs whose authority dates to the precolonial period and to voters who lack formal chiefs who can serve as brokers. The latter comparison exploits exogenous assignment of ethnic groups to the colonial invention of chieftaincy in the late nineteenth century. The findings suggest that whether voters benefit from brokers amidst clientelistic electoral competition depends on the accountability relationship between brokers and their clients.

Key Words

Colonialism ; Africa ; Clientelism ; Brokers ; Distributive Politics ; Ghanatraditional Chiefs

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ID: 141647

What do i need to vote? bureaucratic discretion and discrimination by local election officials / White, Ariel R; Nathan, Noah L ; Faller, Ulie K

Nathan, Noah L	Article
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Summary/Abstract

Do street-level bureaucrats discriminate in the services they provide to constituents? We use a field experiment to measure differential information provision about voting by local election administrators in the United States. We contact over 7,000 election officials in 48 states who are responsible for providing information to voters and implementing voter ID laws. We find that officials provide different information to potential voters of different putative ethnicities. Emails sent from Latino aliases are significantly less likely to receive any response from local election officials than non-Latino white aliases and receive responses of lower quality. This raises concerns about the effect of voter ID laws on access to the franchise and about bias in the provision of services by local bureaucrats more generally.

Key Words

United States ; Need to Vote ; Bureaucratic Discretion and Discrimination ; Local Election Officials

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