Abstract
We study a randomized Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) intervention that provided two years of exposure to democratic practices in 1250 villages in eastern Congo. To assess its impact, we examine behavior in a village-level unconditional cash transfer project that distributed $1000 to 457 treatment and control villages. The unconditonal cash transfer provides opportunities to assess whetherpublic funds get captured, what governance practices are employed by villagers and village elites and whether prior exposure to the CDR intervention alters these behaviors. We find no evidence for such effects. The results cast doubt on current attempts to export democratic practices to local communities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 279-301 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Journal of Development Economics |
Volume | 140 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2019 |
Keywords
- Culture
- Demonstration effects
- Institutions
- Political economy
- Political processes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Development
- Economics and Econometrics