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Journal Article
Elections in Non-Democracies
Economic Journal
Author(s)
Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a democratic system, but
elections are common in other regimes as well. Such an election might be a
pure farce, with the incumbents getting close to 100\% of the vote. In other
instances, incumbents allow opposition candidates to be on the ballot and
run campaigns, limit electoral fraud, e.g., by inviting international
observers, all to make elections appear fair. In our model, the incumbent is
informed about his popularity, and having a fair election allows him to
signal his popularity to the people. After casting their vote, heterogeneous
citizens decide whether or not to participate in a protest, and they are
more willing to do so if they expect others to protest as well. We
demonstrate theoretically that regimes that have a high level of elite
repression are less likely to have fair elections, but regimes with a high
cost of protesting for ordinary citizens make fair elections more
likely.
Date Published:
2021
Citations:
Egorov, Georgy, Konstantin Sonin. 2021. Elections in Non-Democracies. Economic Journal. (636)1682-1716.