Visibility and Local Electoral Accountability
Contemporary waves of decentralization and local democratization reforms have placed unprecedented power in the hands of local governments in the developing world. But it remains unclear how citizens use local elections to hold politicians accountable. Using evidence from Brazil, I show that proximity only provides voters access to information about visible actions and outcomes, which leads voters to reward incumbents for visible actions, such as infrastructure projects and capital purchases, rather than actions that align with their stated preferences, including spending on health care and education.
Peter Johannessen
This profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.
Peter Johannessen (PhD, Princeton University), a 2017–18 Kellogg visiting fellow, is a political scientist who studies decentralization and the political economy of development with a regional focus on Latin America...
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