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A central normative justification for representative democracy is that elections are a means for citizens to exercise control over the actions of their representatives. In this course we will examine to what extent and under what conditions elections give citizens control over their leaders. The course will introduce students to the basic concepts, theoretical frameworks, and recent papers from the field of electoral accountability. The course will cover important barriers to accountability in democratic polities: (1) access to information, (2) voter coordination problems, (3) institutional barriers, (4) the availability of strong competence signals, and (5) behavioral constraints.
Prior knowledge of hypothesis testing and linear regression is required. Participants of the course should prepare a presentation and write an empirical research design paper to receive full credit. |
