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Exporting Democratic Practices: Evidence from a Village Governance Intervention in Eastern Congo

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  • Humphreys, Macartan
  • de la Sierra, Raul Sanchez
  • van der Windt, Peter Cornelis

Abstract

We study a randomized Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) intervention that provided two years of exposure to democratic practices in 1,250 villages in eastern Congo. To assess impacts, we examine behavior in a later village-level unconditional cash transfer project that distributed $1,000 to 457 treatment and control villages. The exercise provides opportunities to assess whether public funds get captured, what governance practices are employed by villagers and village elites and whether the intervention altered these behaviors. We find no evidence for such effects. The results cast doubt on current attempts to export democratic practices to local communities.

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  • Humphreys, Macartan & de la Sierra, Raul Sanchez & van der Windt, Peter Cornelis, 2020. "Exporting Democratic Practices: Evidence from a Village Governance Intervention in Eastern Congo," SocArXiv mn24b, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:mn24b
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/mn24b
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

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