Chiefs’ Endorsements and Voter Behavior
Traditional leaders can influence electoral outcomes. We designed an experiment to investigate why public endorsements by chiefs affect voters – and which types of voters they influence. Chiefs have incentives to prefer politicians who will promote local development, and can use endorsements to sway elections accordingly. We argue that voters often interpret chiefs’ endorsements as a signal of candidate quality. To assess this argument, we exposed voters to real endorsements made by chiefs during Ghana’s 2020 presidential election. We show that endorsements impact the vote choice of undecided voters. Consistent with a signaling mechanism, respondents exposed to chiefs’ rationale for endorsing a candidate were no more likely to vote for the endorsed candidate than those who only heard chiefs’ approval of a candidate. Further, treated respondents hold higher evaluations of the endorsed candidate on multiple dimensions of candidate quality. Our results suggest that chiefs influence voters through a non-coercive mechanism, which has positive implications for accountability.
Comparative Political Studies 57(10): 1703–1734, 2024.
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Citation
@article{brierley2024,
author = {Brierley, Sarah and K. Ofosu, George},
title = {Chiefs’ {Endorsements} and {Voter} {Behavior}},
journal = {Comparative Political Studies},
volume = {57},
number = {10},
pages = {1703-1734},
date = {2024-01-01},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140231194916},
doi = {10.1177/00104140231194916},
langid = {en},
abstract = {Traditional leaders can influence electoral outcomes. We
designed an experiment to investigate why public endorsements by
chiefs affect voters – and which types of voters they influence.
Chiefs have incentives to prefer politicians who will promote local
development, and can use endorsements to sway elections accordingly.
We argue that voters often interpret chiefs’ endorsements as a
signal of candidate quality. To assess this argument, we exposed
voters to real endorsements made by chiefs during Ghana’s 2020
presidential election. We show that endorsements impact the vote
choice of undecided voters. Consistent with a signaling mechanism,
respondents exposed to chiefs’ rationale for endorsing a candidate
were no more likely to vote for the endorsed candidate than those
who only heard chiefs’ approval of a candidate. Further, treated
respondents hold higher evaluations of the endorsed candidate on
multiple dimensions of candidate quality. Our results suggest that
chiefs influence voters through a non-coercive mechanism, which has
positive implications for accountability.}
}