RAPID: The Effects of Civic Education and Electoral Observation on Voters During Violent Elections

民主化国家的政治家经常使用暴力手段来赢得选举。本项目调查的是，在暴力已成为选举过程常规部分的国家，通常由美国等国际捐助方支持的民主促进项目——即公民教育和选举观察——是否能影响公民的民主态度和政治行为。这是Côte科特迪瓦的背景，该国将举行自上次选举结果有争议后内战爆发以来的首次总统选举。在总统选举前夕，该项目将与争取和平与民主发展的公民社会联盟（COSOPCI）合作，在Côte科特迪瓦四个地区的选定社区开展公民教育项目。该项目将在选举前后对选民进行调查，以评估他们对选举可信度的看法、对使用暴力的政党的看法以及他们的投票意愿如何受到公民教育和选举观察的影响。这项研究有可能推动社会科学对政治暴力与群众支持民主之间关系的研究。很少有研究解释选举暴力如何影响公民，以及程序性干预是否可以调解公民如何参与暴力选举过程。该项目将通过在接受治疗和对照组的社区中随机选择的选民中进行小组调查来测试实验性治疗。在选举前后进行一项带有实验成分的小组调查，将使我们能够评估公民的看法是否会随着在随机选择的社区进行的公民教育计划的曝光而系统性地变化，并衡量治疗效果在选举后是否持续。此外，小组调查将包括实验性处理，随机改变有关选举观察员在场的信息以及当地观察员对选举的评估信息。据我们所知，这项研究将是首批评估公民教育和选举观察等干预措施是否会在塑造重要结果（如公民参与选举过程和对暴力犯罪者的政治支持）方面产生相互作用的研究之一。此外，这项研究有可能提供新的见解，帮助政策制定者重新评估暴力易发国家的民主建设项目。了解暴力如何影响公民行为——以及公民教育如何影响公民行为——可能使决策者能够制定更适合于在这些国家加强对民主的支持的干预措施。为此目的，主要研究人员将设法传播我们的研究结果，方法是在政治学和政策相关期刊上发表研究结果，与美国和Côte科特迪瓦的政策制定者和民间社会利益攸关方举行研讨会，包括在Côte科特迪瓦提供电台采访，并使获得的数据公开。

Politicians in democratizing countries often use violent tactics to win elections. This project investigates whether democracy promotion programs typically supported by international donors like the United States - namely, civic education and election observation - can affect citizens' democratic attitudes and political behaviors in countries where violence has become a routine part of the electoral process. This is the context found in Côte d'Ivoire, which will be holding its first presidential elections since a civil war erupted after the previous election results were disputed. In the run-up to the presidential election, the project will be collaborating with the Coalition of Civil Society for Peace and Democratic Development (COSOPCI) to conduct a civic education program in selected communities in four regions of Côte d'Ivoire. The project will conduct a survey among voters both before and after the election to assess how their perceptions of the election's credibility, their assessment of parties that employ violence, and their willingness to vote are shaped by exposure to civic education and electoral observation.This study has the potential to advance social science research on the relationship between political violence and mass support for democracy. There is little research that explains how electoral violence affects citizens and whether programmatic interventions can mediate how citizens engage with violent electoral processes. The project will test experimental treatments through a panel survey among randomly selected voters across both treated and control communities. Conducting a panel survey with experimental components before and after the election will enable us to assess whether citizen perceptions vary systematically with exposure to the civic education program conducted in randomly selected communities as well as to gauge whether the treatment effects persist after the election. Additionally, the panel survey will include experimental treatments that randomly vary information concerning the presence of election observers as well as information from local observers' assessment of the election. To our knowledge, this study will be among the first to assess whether interventions like civic education and election observation might interact in shaping important outcomes such as citizens' engagement in the electoral process and political support for perpetrators of violence. In addition, this study has the potential to provide new insights to help policymakers reevaluate democracy-building programs in violence-prone countries. Understanding how violence affects citizen behavior - and how such behavior might be influenced by civic education - may enable policymakers to craft interventions better suited to enhancing support for democracy in such countries. Toward that end, the principal investigators will seek to disseminate our findings by publishing them in political science and policy-related journals, conducting seminars with policymakers and civil society stakeholders in the United States and Côte d'Ivoire, including providing radio interviews in Côte d'Ivoire, and making the data produced publicly available.