Barriers to Political Entry: Experimental Evidence from Local Government Elections in Pakistan

Authors: Saad Gulzar and Muhammad Yasir Khan

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Abstract

Local governments are said to be susceptible to elite capture in the developing world. Reforms that aim to improve political competition may help reduce elite capture. We run a randomized control trial prior to elections for village councils in rural Pakistan to study three barriers to political entry: cost of running for office, lack of information on electability of candidates and lack of information on benefits from office. We find that the cost of running for office is the main barrier preventing political entry of citizens, while lack of information on electability and benefits from office are not binding constraints on average. We find they do matter for certain populations: citizens who have higher prior beliefs of winning the elections respond to provision of information with increased probability of running for office.