Unintended Social Consequences of Introducing Electoral Competition: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indonesia

Abstract

Social scientists have long investigated the roles of citizens’ civic attitudes and associational life in democracies. Yet, it remains to be fully elucidated whether their attitudes and activities not only influence but also are influenced by the political process in democracies. To address this question, we estimate the socio-attitudinal impacts of introducing mayoral elections in post-democratization Indonesia, which started to take place in July 2005. Our identification strategy is to leverage a variation in the timing of the first election. By using a nationwide survey administered in 2006 before or after the first election, we show that citizens who had experienced the first election before the survey was administered were more likely to have pessimistic and non-social attitudes and negative views about their community. We argue that introducing electoral competition under a poor electoral administration may produce unintended negative social consequences, which may hinder the process of democratic consolidation.