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Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010

BENJAMIN A. OLKEN
BENJAMIN A. OLKEN*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Bureau of Economic Research
*
Benjamin A. Olken is Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 50 Memorial Drive E52-252A, Cambridge, MA, 02142 ([email protected]).
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Abstract

This article presents an experiment in which 49 Indonesian villages were randomly assigned to choose development projects through either representative-based meetings or direct election-based plebiscites. Plebiscites resulted in dramatically higher satisfaction among villagers, increased knowledge about the project, greater perceived benefits, and higher reported willingness to contribute. Changing the political mechanism had much smaller effects on the actual projects selected, with some evidence that plebiscites resulted in projects chosen by women being located in poorer areas. The results suggest that direct participation in political decision making can substantially increase satisfaction and legitimacy.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 104 , Issue 2 , May 2010 , pp. 243 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

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