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Inherited Institutions: Cooperation in the Light of Democratic Legitimacy

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  • Pascal Langenbach

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

  • Franziska Tausch

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

Abstract

We experimentally investigate whether the procedural history of a sanctioning institution affects cooperation in a social dilemma. Subjects inherit the institutional setting from a previous generation of subjects who either decided on the implementation of the institution democratically by majority vote or were exogenously assigned a setting. In order to isolate the impact of the voting procedure, no information about the cooperation history is provided. In line with existing empirical evidence, we observe that in the starting generation cooperation is higher (lower) with a democratically chosen (rejected) institution, as compared to the corresponding, randomly imposed setting. In the second generation, the procedural history only partly affects cooperation. While there is no positive democracy effect when the institution is implemented, the vote-based rejection of the institution negatively affects cooperation in the second generation. The effect size is similar to that in the first generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascal Langenbach & Franziska Tausch, 2017. "Inherited Institutions: Cooperation in the Light of Democratic Legitimacy," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2017_01, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2017_01
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    2. Konstantin Chatziathanasiou & Svenja Hippel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2020. "Do rights to resistance discipline the elites? An experiment on the threat of overthrow," Munich Papers in Political Economy 08, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogeneity; Voting; Institutions; Social dilemma; Public good; Inherited rules;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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