An Empirical Anatomy of Electoral Accountability: Experimental Evidence from a Pre-Election Information Dissemination Campaign in Senegal

Information dissemination campaigns are often used to improve electoral accountability in developing democracies. However, their mixed effects suggest complex interactions between information content, voters, and politicians. This talk reviews field research in rural Senegal conducted to understand when information can support electoral accountability, with an experiement that randomized the provision of information about the responsibilities of deputies, their local and national performance, and a comparison with the performance of the previous incumbent(s) before the 2017 parliamentary elections.