RAPID: The Effects of Civic Education and Electoral Observation on Voters During Violent Elections

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Politicians in democratizing countries often use violent tactics to win elections. This project investigates whether democracy promotion programs typically supported by international donors like the United States - namely, civic education and election observation - can affect citizens' democratic attitudes and political behaviors in countries where violence has become a routine part of the electoral process. This is the context found in Côte d'Ivoire, which will be holding its first presidential elections since a civil war erupted after the previous election results were disputed. In the run-up to the presidential election, the project will be collaborating with the Coalition of Civil Society for Peace and Democratic Development (COSOPCI) to conduct a civic education program in selected communities in four regions of Côte d'Ivoire. The project will conduct a survey among voters both before and after the election to assess how their perceptions of the election's credibility, their assessment of parties that employ violence, and their willingness to vote are shaped by exposure to civic education and electoral observation. This study has the potential to advance social science research on the relationship between political violence and mass support for democracy. There is little research that explains how electoral violence affects citizens and whether programmatic interventions can mediate how citizens engage with violent electoral processes. The project will test experimental treatments through a panel survey among randomly selected voters across both treated and control communities. Conducting a panel survey with experimental components before and after the election will enable us to assess whether citizen perceptions vary systematically with exposure to the civic education program conducted in randomly selected communities as well as to gauge whether the treatment effects persist after the election. Additionally, the panel survey will include experimental treatments that randomly vary information concerning the presence of election observers as well as information from local observers' assessment of the election. To our knowledge, this study will be among the first to assess whether interventions like civic education and election observation might interact in shaping important outcomes such as citizens' engagement in the electoral process and political support for perpetrators of violence. In addition, this study has the potential to provide new insights to help policymakers reevaluate democracy-building programs in violence-prone countries. Understanding how violence affects citizen behavior - and how such behavior might be influenced by civic education - may enable policymakers to craft interventions better suited to enhancing support for democracy in such countries. Toward that end, the principal investigators will seek to disseminate our findings by publishing them in political science and policy-related journals, conducting seminars with policymakers and civil society stakeholders in the United States and Côte d'Ivoire, including providing radio interviews in Côte d'Ivoire, and making the data produced publicly available.