The effect of being a poll worker on democratic attitudes in a post-conflict society: Evidence from an experiment in Colombia

This paper examines how citizens’ direct participation in democratic processes boosts positive attitudes toward procedural democratic practices. Focusing on compulsory participation among poll workers, we argue that citizens selected will gain additional information on procedures from participation in electoral administration; we test our claims by leveraging a pre-registered large-scale experiment from the 2023 Colombian regional elections. Based on a unique survey dataset of over 25,000 poll workers matched with a sample of ordinary citizens, we identify a positive and robust causal effect of electoral task management on attitudes toward elections and democracy via epistemic and experiential mechanisms. Moreover, we discover that this treatment effect is smaller in municipalities heavily affected by political violence during the civil conflict between the government and guerrilla forces. This study aims both to identify the mechanisms linking participation in democratic processes on citizens’ attitudes and enrich our understanding of democratic consolidation processes in post-conflict societies.

Intervenants:

Damien Bol, enseignant-chercheur au CEVIPOF (Centre de recherches politiques) de Sciences Po présentera une communication intitulée :

“The effect of being a poll worker on democratic attitudes in a post-conflict society: Evidence from an experiment in Colombia” avec Damien Bol