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

这篇博士论文的研究探讨了改变选举权规则对再分配政策的影响。 该项目采用了一个发生在南非的非自然实验。 1994年，南非举行了第一次非种族选举。 当时，以前被剥夺公民权的黑人和亚洲人获得了投票权。 这些群体不仅不能在大选中投票，而且比享有选举权的公民穷得多。 这项研究探讨了弱势选民的大量涌入是否导致了将国家资源重新分配给这些选民的政策。 为了检验一个很好的理论模型，研究者收集了大量的财政数据，从南非在1994年改革之前和之后。 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方。

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.