PLSC 424 Exam #1

Asking citizens how often they have paid bribes for essential government services

+: can see how corrupt the government is, how bias the people are towards the government -: people are going to lie because they are scared of being publicly shamed, tendency to underestimate contributions

conducting independent audits of government projects

+: interesting to see how the government is working across the spectrum, see an outline of priorities and goals -: focusing on small scale individual projects does not give an accurate depiction of what the government is doing on a larger scale, cannot see how the government is working as a whole

Using official data on outcomes such as inflation

+: quantitative data can be a good indicator of why things are the way they are, or what to expect in the future -: outcomes do not explain intentions, the gov might have great outcomes but their motives might be corrupt and horrible; people tend to focus too much on outcomes and not about the inputs that went into It

Asking citizens whether you believe their government is functional

+: the government wants to know people's perceptions as it's the most accurate representation of what the country believes in them -: people are likely to tell you what you want to hear, tend to overestimate their beliefs, they are scared to speak out because of consequences, they are more likely to say yes when their party is in power and no when It isn't

Give three reasons we would expect higher rates of taxation might be correlated with good governance

- when people are taxed, they are more likely to hold their government accountable - higher taxation is caused by better governance because there is better oversight; when you have a solid government, you can monitor people, and force them to comply, specifically to paying their taxes - people are more likely to pay taxes if they observe a responsive government - taxation convinces the people that the government is responsive and is listening to their needs

Provide three methods for improving the average competence of elected politicians

1. Fair Elections: allow citizens to choose 'good types' which are more honest and competent 2. Sanctioning: politicians who do not act like good types allow people to vote them out of office which weeds out all the incompetent "bad ones" 3. Selected education: politicians are more likely to compete and win competitions

Describe three obstacles to perfect selection and explain why they are obstacles

1. Money matters: criminals and non qualified rich people are more likely to be elected because of their money --> they can fund campaigns and you need money to run 2. Low-info: When party cues aren't available, people are less likely to vote, or less likely to vote in someone that they actually want 3. Vote-buying: when party/ethnic cues are weak, it can lead to increased debt-seeking and corrupt behavior, which leads to the selection of bad types

Give two examples in which low information interferes with effective selection, and describe how voters make decisions under low information

1. Vote Buying: A candidate tries to buy the votes of the people through handouts or cheap talk; party/ethnic cues are weak which leads to debt-seeking behavior and corruption 2. No party cues: people are less likely to vote, or at least to vote for someone they actually want to elect When low information is available and there are no party cues, people are likely to vote for a candidate that looks like them, or is from the came class, gender or religion, so they feel that this candidate shares an identity with them

Explain how governance, representation, and accountability are related, and also how they are distinct.

Accountability is how we hold our representatives accountable - are they punished/rewarded for the things they do/do not do right Representation: do they follow the desires of the people; matching preferences with what the people want In theory, accountability leads to good representation which lads to good governance. Voters will vote leaders that they can trust will face the consequences for doing the right thing, and will represent the people properly Trade off between G/A/R --> sometimes the people do not know what they want, and sometimes the people define good governance as democracy They are separate because they do not all rely on one another but they contribute to one another

Shadow economy

Activities both legal and illegal that are 'off the books' in terms of taxation and government stats - when governments calculate the GDP they do not include what goes onion the shadow economy - you have to get what you owe through taxes, however no country can truly capture what they owe - even the wealthiest countries lost 8% of what they owe, even though their taxes are higher SIGNIFICANCE: strong correlation between the size of government and the shadow of governance

Coefficient or B Standard Error Statistical Significance

Big Number Parenthesis P-Value ***

Explain why good governance can be described as self-reinforcing.

Compliancy: if the government asks you to do something you don't want to do, will you do It It is self-reinforcing because It depends on how likely the people are to follow the rule of law If people do not follow the rules of the government --> that means they do not think that the government is liable, or that the government has their best interest at hand If they are compliant, that means they have trust that the government is legitimate

what is the difference between error and bias

Error: unavoidable, random, as-if random - error will average out with the more data gathered and the more studies that are conducted and will lead you to the right answer Bias: sometimes avoidable, not random -the more studies conducted and data gathered, the more bias is going to lead you to the wrong answer

Give two ways in which selection can, at least in theory, produce better governance

First, people are able to choose the candidate that best represents the people's wants and desires. This way, on average, good governance will occur when the policies presented match the preferences of the people Second, selection can help weed out the people that aren't qualified or are acting self-interested; eliminate the people that aren't qualified to be in government During elections in the selection process, people can learn about what the candidates are promising, and see how they are going to implement these promises Election --> selection of good types --> work harder for the people --> best possible outcomes

Are established parties helpful or harmful to selection? Provide evidence for and against.

Helpful: - voters can rely on party cues to predict party behavior which can help the voter; these cues are observable and allow the public to form ideological positions, which can help them in the selection process Harmful: -parties can take control of the nominations because people select congruent politicians with their beliefs with little information -can cause people to be too engrained in their voters mind which can create selection bias

Define legitimacy, describe how it might be measured, and explain it's importance to good governance

Legitimacy is a widely shared perception that the government has the right to make and enforce laws; It can be measured through surveys which ask the people 'do you think the government is legitimate' or through observing compliancy Compliance is the moral obligation that people have to follow the government, or the best strategy long term It's importance to good governance because if people think the government is legitimate, they will believe that the government has their best interest at hand, and follow the government's rules If people do not think the government is legitimate, they will not be compliant which shows they do not think the gov has their best interest at hand, or that they have the right to make and enforce laws

Contrast the selection and sanctioning mechanisms for improving governance.

Selection: people can vote in the 'good guys', and learn what political candidates promise to do; they can analyze if their promises are in accordance to what the people want Sanctioning: punishes politicians that do not act like the good types, or are corrupt; the people learn how the incumbents perform their duties and vote out the ones that do not properly represent the people or are not maximizing aggregate welfare usually self-interested and incompetent ^^

Contrast valence and ideological goods and explain what providing good governance means for each type of good

Valence Goods - goods or policies that everyone wants - example: lower corruption, less waste, economic growth, better schools Ideological Goods - goods with winners or losers - example: redistribution, immigration policies, environmental regulations, labor laws -depending on your party, you are either going to believe (win) these policies, or lose (not believe) -providing good governance for valence goods means that on average, the policies that the government are implementing match the preferences of the people to create the best possible outcomes -providing good governance for ideological goods means that the government is implementing policies in accordance to a specific ideology, however is trying to maximize the welfare of all people

Explain why rational voters often prefer politicians of their ethnicity, gender, religion, or caste. Give two reasons with examples or evidence.

When little party cues are available, and there is low information...

Do voters trade off ideology and competence? Provide evidence for and against

Yes No -In selection, you can fairly vote while having certain ideological beliefs. A voter can recognize that a candidate is competent

Define good governance and explain why this is your definition

good governance maximizes aggregate welfare and produces the best possible outcome in a well governed country there is: -checks and balances to make sure there is no corruption -good quality infrastructure -transparency and honesty within representatives -representatives have their constituents best interest at hand -government reflects the desires of the people -security throughout the country and people follow the rule of law end goal is to provide people with the best quality of life possible

Prospect theory

people are willing to take on risk to avoid losing utility (money, freedom, well-being) but less willing to take on risk to gain It when you give people money and take It away, they are much more likely to use their own pay to punish a leader willing to take on costs and bear the risks (tax fraud)

3 ways in which measurement might contain error

reporting/calculation: not everything was reported, or there was misrepresentation; the respondents were confused as to what they were being asked to do aggregate: the difficulty to understand complex ideas and find a way to measure them (add, subtract, etc) chance events: spontaneous events that happened that prevented people from voting for example

policy congruence

select congruent politician with little information

partisan bias

tendency of supporters of political parties to support their parties view and politics in contrast to other parties people identify politicians by their partisanship, and It is used as a social identity

what is measurement error

the difference between the true value that exists in reality compared to the measured value

What are 'good types' and why are they important to good government?

the good types are politicians and bureaucrats that are honest and competent; they are public spirited and truly want to represent the people; they make their policies based on what the people want they are important because they will work harder to fulfill their duties to represent the people which will in turn bring better outcomes good governance is about maximizing aggregate welfare to produce the best possible outcomes --> more possible with 'good types'

Is media freedom an important determinant of governance according to these results

while the p-value is low, for every 1 move up the media freedom scale, the index of government moves up 0.6 if the range is 0-100, you have to move a lot to see any significant changes even though the p-value is low, that does not mean that media freedom is an important determinant of governance

distributive politics

who gets what, what voters, what identifiable group of voters, which communities, which region resources might be valence (schools) but pattern of allocation can create a pattern of winners and losers