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Democratization and Civic Capital

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  • Guiso, Luigi
  • Pinotti, Paolo

Abstract

We document a sharp reversal in electoral participation between the North and the South of Italy after the 1912 enfranchisement which extended voting rights from a limited élite to (almost) all adult males. When voting was restricted to the élite, electoral turnout was higher in the South but falls significantly below that in the North after the enfranchisement. Furthermore the new gap is never bridged over the following century and participation remains lower in the South despite the enrichment of democratic institutions and further extension of voting rights to the female population during the post war democratic republic. This pattern in the data is consistent with a simple model where individuals? voting in political elections is affected by private benefits and by civic duty, only elites can grab private benefits from participation in politics and civic culture differs across communities. We also find that extension of voting rights to non-elites results in a significant transfer of power to their political organizations only among populations with a high sense of civic duties. Together with the very persistent gap in participation between North and South our findings suggest that democratization ? a process of concession of democratic rights ? can benefit non-elites only when the latter have already a high sense of civic capital and is unlikely to be a viable avenue for inducing norms of civic behavior.

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  • Guiso, Luigi & Pinotti, Paolo, 2012. "Democratization and Civic Capital," CEPR Discussion Papers 8847, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8847
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gerard Padro -i-Miquel & Nancy Qian, 2015. "Making Democracy Work: Culture, Social Capital and Elections in China," Working Papers id:6619, eSocialSciences.
    3. Giuseppe Bertola & Paolo Sestito, 2011. "A Comparative Perspective on Italy’s Human Capital Accumulation," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 06, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    4. Mauro, Luciano & Pigliaru, Francesco & Carmeci, Gaetano, 2018. "Decentralization and growth: Do informal institutions and rule of law matter?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 873-902.
    5. Andrea Boltho & Wendy Carlin, 2013. "EMU's Problems: Asymmetric Shocks or Asymmetric Behavior?," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 55(3), pages 387-403, September.
    6. Gabriele Cappelli, 2016. "Escaping from a human capital trap? Italy's regions and the move to centralized primary schooling, 1861–1936," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 46-65.
    7. Nancy Qian, 2014. "Making Democracy Work: The Effects of Social Capital and Elections on Public Goods in China," 2014 Meeting Papers 1414, Society for Economic Dynamics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civic capital; Culture; Democracy; Institutions formation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics
    • E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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