Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T00:05:16.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Voter Competence Good for Voters?: Information, Rationality, and Democratic Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2014

SCOTT ASHWORTH  and
ETHAN BUENO DE MESQUITA
SCOTT ASHWORTH*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
ETHAN BUENO DE MESQUITA*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
Scott Ashworth is Associate Professor, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago (sashwort@uchicago.edu).
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita is Professor, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago (bdm@uchicago.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A long research tradition in behavioral political science evaluates the performance of democracy by examining voter competence. This literature got its start arguing that voters' lack of information undermines a defense of democracy rooted in electoral accountability. A more recent literature deepens the debate, with some authors claiming that voters effectively use cues to substitute for information about candidates and policies, and other authors claiming that voters are insufficiently rational to do so. We argue that, regardless of its conclusions about voter competence, this literature’s single-minded focus on voter behavior is misguided. We use a sequence of formal models to show that traditional intuitions are incomplete because they ignore the effect that changes in voter behavior have on the equilibrium behavior of politicians. When this strategic interaction is taken into account, increases in voter information or voter rationality sometimes make democratic performance better and sometimes make democratic performance worse. One simply cannot assess the implications of voter characteristics for democratic performance without also studying how those characteristics affect the behavior of politicians.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 108 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 565 - 587
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Achen, Christopher H., and Bartels, Larry M.. 2004. “Blind Retrospection: Electoral Responses to Drought, Flu, and Shark Attacks.” Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Alt, James, Bueno de Mesquita, Ethan, and Rose, Shanna. 2011. “Disentangling Accountability and Competence in Elections: Evidence from U.S. Term Limits.” Journal of Politics 73 (1): 171–86.Google Scholar
Ashworth, Scott. 2005. “Reputational Dynamics and Political Careers.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 21 (2): 441–66.Google Scholar
Ashworth, Scott, and Bueno de Mesquita, Ethan. 2006. “Delivering the Goods: Legislative Particularism in Different Electoral and Institutional Settings.” Journal of Politics 68 (1): 169–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 1996. “Uninformed Votes: Information Effects in Presidential Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (1): 194–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtel, Michael M., and Hainmueller, Jens. 2011. “How Lasting Is Voter Gratitude? An Analysis of the Short-and Long-Term Electoral Returns to Beneficial Policy.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (4): 852–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy. 2006. Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Governement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Case, Anne. 2003. “Political Institutions and Policy Choices: Evidence from the United States.” Journal of Economic Literature 41 (1): 7–73.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E.. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice, Herron, Michael C., and Shotts, Kenneth W.. 2001. “Leadership and Pandering: A Theory of Executive Policymaking.” American Journal of Political Science 45: 532–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Jowei. 2013. “Voter Partisanship and the Effect of Distributive Spending on Political Participation.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (1): 200–17.Google Scholar
Coate, Stephen, and Morris, Stephen. 1995. “On the Form of Transfers to Special Interests.” Journal of Political Economy 103 (6): 1210–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Janvry, Alain, Finan, Frederico, and Sadoulet, Elisabeth. 2012. “Local Electoral Accountability and Decentralized Program Performance.” Review of Economics and Statistics 94 (3): 672–85.Google Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Keeter, Scott. 1996. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Ebeid, Michael, and Rodden, Jonathan. 2006. “Economic Geography and Economic Voting: Evidence from the US States.” British Journal of Political Science 36 (3): 527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fair, Ray C. 1978. “The Effect of Economic Events on Votes for President.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 60 (2): 159–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1999. “Electoral Accountability and the Control of Politicians: Selecting Good Types versus Sanctioning Poor Performance,” In Democracy, Accountability, and Representation, eds. Przeworski, Adam, Stokes, Susan and Manin, Bernard. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferraz, Claudio, and Finan, Frederico. 2011. “Motivating Politicians: The Impacts of Monetary Incentives on Quality and Performance.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, Justin. 2007. “Government Transparency and Policymaking.” Public Choice 131 (1–2): 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Justin, and Stephenson, Matthew C.. 2011. “Judicial Review as a Response to Political Posturing.” American Political Science Review 105 (2): 397–414.Google Scholar
Fox, Justin, and Van Weelden, Richard. 2010. “Partisanship and the Effectiveness of Oversight.” Journal of Public Economics 94 (9–10): 684–97.Google Scholar
Gagliarducci, Stefano, and Nannicini, Tommaso. 2013. “Do Better Paid Politicians Perform Better?: Disentangling Incentives from Selection.” Journal of the European Economic Association 11 (2): 369–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelbach, Scott. 2007. “Electoral Institutions and the National Provision of Local Public Goods.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 2 (1): 5–25.Google Scholar
Gordon, Sanford C., and Huber., Gregory A. 2007. “The Effect of Electoral Competitiveness on Incumbent Behavior.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 2 (2): 107–38.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew, and Malhotra, Neal. 2010. “Random Events, Economic Losses, and Retrospective Voting: Implications for Democratic Competence.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 5 (2): 193–208.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew, and Malhotra, Neil. 2013. “Retrospective Voting Reconsidered.” Annual Review of Political Science 16: 285–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healy, A. J., Malhotra, N., and Mo, C. H.. 2010. “Irrelevant Events Affect Voters’ Evaluations of Government Performance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (29): 12804–9.Google Scholar
Heifetz, Aviad, Shannon, Chris, and Spiegel, Yossi. 2007. “What to Maximize if you must.” Journal of Economic Theory 133 (1): 31–57.Google Scholar
Huber, Gregory A., Hill, Seth J., and Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2012. “Sources of Bias in Retrospective Decision-Making: Experimental Evidence on Voters Limitations in Controlling Incumbents.” American Political Science Review 106 (4): 720–41.Google Scholar
Kayser, Mark Andreas, and Peress, Michael. 2012. “Benchmarking Across Borders: Electoral Accountability and the Necessity of Comparison.” American Political Science Review 106 (03): 661–84.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. 1966. The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting, 1936–1960. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sears, David O.. 1985. “Public Opinion and Political Action.” The Handbook of Social Psychology 2 (3): 659–61.Google Scholar
Kuklinski, James H., and Hurley, Norman L.. 1994. “On Hearing and Interpreting Political Messages: A Cautionary Tale of Citizen Cue-Taking.” The Journal of Politics 56 (3): 729–51.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R., and Redlawsk, David P.. 2001. “Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics in Political Decision Making.” American Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 951–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, John M. 2003. Introduction to Smooth Manifolds. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Leigh, Andrew. 2009. “Does the World Economy Swing National Elections?” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 71 (2): 163–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupia, Arthur. 1994. “Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections.” American Political Science Review 88 (1): 63–76.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and McCubbins, Matthew D.. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? Cambridge, England. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maskin, Eric, and Tirole, Jean. 2004. “The Politician and the Judge: Accountability in Government.” American Economic Review 94 (4): 1034–54.Google Scholar
Milgrom, Paul, and Roberts, John. 1994. “Comparing Equilibria.” American Economic Review 84 (3): 441–59.Google Scholar
Persson, Torsten, and Tabellini, Guido. 2000. Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Prato, Carlo, and Wolton, Stephane. 2013. “The Voters’ Curses: The Upsides and Downsides of Political Engagement.” University of Chicago typescript.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., Brody, Richard A., and Tetlock, Phillip E.. 1993. Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology. Cambridge, England. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, James M., and Strömberg, David. 2010. “Press Coverage and Political Accountability.” Journal of Political Economy 118 (2): 355–408.Google Scholar
Wolfers, Justin. 2009. “Are Voters Rational?: Evidence from Gubernatorial Elections.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar