American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Voting for Democracy: Chile's Plebiscito and the Electoral Participation of a Generation
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 15,
no. 3, August 2023
(pp. 438–64)
Abstract
This paper assesses the long-term consequences of voting for democracy. We study Chile's 1988 plebiscite, which ended 15 years of dictatorship and reestablished democracy. Taking advantage of individual-level voting data, we implement an age-based regression discontinuity design comparing long-run registration and turnout rates across marginally eligible and ineligible individuals. We find plebiscite eligibility increased electoral turnout three decades later. The magnitude of the initial mobilization emerges as the mechanism. Plebiscite eligibility induced a sizable share of less-educated voters to register compared to other upstream elections. The event contributed to the emergence of one-party rule the 20 years following democratization.Citation
Kaplan, Ethan, Fernando Saltiel, and Sergio Urzúa. 2023. "Voting for Democracy: Chile's Plebiscito and the Electoral Participation of a Generation." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 15 (3): 438–64. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210338Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D82 Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
- O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
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