SMS texts on corruption help Ugandan voters hold elected councillors accountable at the polls
| Autor: | Ryan S. Jablonski, Daniel L. Nielson, Paula M. Pickering, Mark T. Buntaine |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Budgets
Financial Management Corruption media_common.quotation_subject Persuasive Communication Political Sciences Social Sciences Disclosure Public administration Truth Disclosure information T Technology (General) Government Employees Voting 0502 economics and business MD Multidisciplinary 050602 political science & public administration Political corruption Humans Uganda elections 050207 economics media_common Social Responsibility Text Messaging Multidisciplinary Democratic accountability 05 social sciences Politics JA Political science (General) 0506 political science Test (assessment) communication technology accountability Information and Communications Technology Local government voting Accountability ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDSOCIETY Business |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 115, iss 26 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Popis: | Significance Text messages providing salient, nonpartisan, official information on budget corruption prompted Ugandan voters to take the performance of some politicians into account when voting. Holding politicians accountable via elections is a fundamental precursor to effective governance, economic development, and high-quality public services. The results indicate that communication technologies can combine with data on budget management to help voters make better informed choices at the polls and thus have the potential to enhance local electoral accountability by providing information that is difficult for politicians to control and manipulate. Many politicians manipulate information to prevent voters from holding them accountable; however, mobile text messages may make it easier for nongovernmental organizations to credibly share information on official corruption that is difficult for politicians to counter directly. We test the potential for texts on budget management to improve democratic accountability by conducting a large (n = 16,083) randomized controlled trial during the 2016 Ugandan district elections. In cooperation with a local partner, we compiled, simplified, and text-messaged official information on irregularities in local government budgets. Verified recipients of messages that described more irregularities than expected reported voting for incumbent councillors 6% less often; verified recipients of messages conveying fewer irregularities than expected reported voting for incumbent councillors 5% more often. The messages had no observable effect on votes for incumbent council chairs, potentially due to voters’ greater reliance on other sources of information for higher profile elections. These mixed results suggest that text messages on budget corruption help voters hold some politicians accountable in settings where elections are not free and fair. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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