Making Democracy Work: Culture, Social Capital and Elections in China

Gerard Padró i Miquel, Nancy Qian, Yiqing Xu and Yang Yao

No 21058, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper aims to show that culture is an important determinant of the effectiveness of formal democratic institutions, such as elections. We collect new data to document the presence of voluntary and social organizations and the history of electoral reforms in Chinese villages. We use the presence of village temples to proxy for culture, or more specifically, for social (civic) capital and show that their presence greatly enhances the increase in public goods due to the introduction of elections. These results support the view that social capital complements democratic institutions such as elections.

JEL-codes: H41 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pol and nep-tra
Note: DEV POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Working Paper: Making Democracy Work: Culture, Social Capital and Elections in China (2015)
Working Paper: Making Democracy Work: Culture, Social Capital and Elections in China (2015)
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