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Elections in Non-Democracies

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  • Georgy Egorov
  • Konstantin Sonin

Abstract

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a democratic system, but elections are common in other regimes as well. Such an election might be a pure farce, with the incumbents getting close to 100% of the vote. In other instances, incumbents allow opposition candidates to be on the ballot and run campaigns, limit electoral fraud, e.g., by inviting international observers, all to make elections appear fair. In our model, the incumbent is informed about his popularity, and having a fair election allows him to signal his popularity to the people. After casting their vote, heterogeneous citizens decide whether or not to participate in a protest, and they are more willing to do so if they expect others to protest as well. We demonstrate theoretically that regimes that have a high level of elite repression are less likely to have fair elections, but regimes with a high cost of protesting for ordinary citizens make fair elections more likely.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2021. "Elections in Non-Democracies," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(636), pages 1682-1716.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:131:y:2021:i:636:p:1682-1716.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa123
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    Cited by:

    1. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Schoors, Koen & Solanko, Laura & Weill, Laurent, 2023. "Staying on top: Political cycles in private bank lending," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 899-917.
    2. Jakob de Haan & Franziska Ohnsorge & Shu Yu, 2023. "Election-Induced Fiscal Policy Cycles in Emerging Market and Developing Economies," CESifo Working Paper Series 10868, CESifo.
    3. Vakhtang Putkaradze, 2023. "The Dictator Dilemma: The Distortion of Information Flow in Autocratic Regimes and Its Consequences," Papers 2310.01666, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    4. Sergei Guriev & Daniel Treisman, 2019. "Informational Autocrats," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 100-127, Fall.
    5. Ananyev, Maxim & Poyker, Michael, 2022. "Do dictators signal strength with electoral fraud?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

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