Accountability in an Authoritarian Regime: The Impact of Local Electoral Reforms in Rural China

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of an increase in local leader accountability within an authoritarian regime by examining the effect of the introduction of village level elections in rural China. We collect a unique nationwide survey on the history of electoral reforms in 217 rural Chinese villages (1980-2005) and exploit variation in the timing of the introduction of elections to establish the causal e¤ect of an increase in leadership accountability. We document that the elections were imperfectly implemented, but still decreased the enforcement of unpopular upper government policies and increased appropriate public goods provision at the village level. The findings provide strong evidence for theories of the benefits of increased political accountability.