Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/130541 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2015-02
Publisher: 
Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics, Ramat-Gan
Abstract: 
Group-based identity undermines democracy by impeding democratic change of government. A substantial literature has therefore studied how to make democracy consistent with group identity. We contribute to this literature by introducing the role of group decisiveness into voting incentives and mobilization of voters. In the elections that we study, for the same populations, accounting for income and other influences, group identity increased voter turnout on average by some 8 percentage points in local elections and decreased voter turnout by some 20 percentage points in national elections. We empirically investigate the effect of group identity on voter turnout and also evaluate whether group identity resulted in budgetary imbalance or replacement of local government because of disfunctionality. Our general contribution is to show how democracy can persist with group identity, although democracy in such instances differs from usual political competition.
Subjects: 
Voting turnout
Voter decisiveness
Expressive voting
Instrumental voting
Local government
Arab Spring
JEL: 
D03
D72
D74
H77
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
208.96 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.