Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Franchise Extension and Politics of Redistribution in South Africa

本博士论文研究考察了改变选举特权规则对再分配政策的影响。该项目采用了发生在南非的一项自然实验。1994年，南非举行了第一次不分种族的选举。那时，以前被剥夺公民权的黑人和亚洲人获得了选举权。这些群体不仅不能在大选中投票，而且比获得选举权的公民穷得多。该研究探讨了弱势选民的大量涌入是否会导致将国家资源重新分配给这些选民的政策。为了检验一个明确的理论模型，研究者收集了南非1994年改革前后的大量财政数据。此外，研究人员还收集了投票和人口普查数据，以评估再分配政策的需求侧。

This doctoral dissertation research examines the impact changing electoral franchise rules for redistributive policy. The project uses a -natural experiment+ occurring in South Africa. In 1994 South Africa held its first non-racially based election. At that time previously disenfranchised Blacks and Asians were given the right to vote. These groups not only were prevented from voting in general elections, but were much poorer than enfranchised citizens. The research explores whether this large influx of disadvantaged voters led to policies that redistribute state resources to those voters. To test a well specified theoretical model, the researcher has assembled a large amount of fiscal data from South Africa both before and after the 1994 reforms. In addition, the researcher has collected voting and census data so as to assess the demand-side for redistributive policies.