Daniel Corstange

Department of Political Science, University of Michigan and Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow

"Democratic Talk and the Democratic Walk: Superficial vs. Sincere Support for Illiterate Voting Rights in Lebanon"

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
12:30 pm - C103 Hesburgh Center

Abstract

Who supports expansive voting rights in divided societies where demography rather than policy rules? Using original mass attitude survey data from Lebanon, I examine support for or opposition to extending voting rights to illiterate people. This question is a sensitive one due to its normative, distributional, and sectarian ramifications. I utilize an unobtrusive measurement technique, the list experiment, to nullify incentives for respondents to misrepresent their attitudes. I show that when the question is asked directly, the response is a sectarian answer: Shiites are systematically more likely to support illiterate voting rights than others, and individual material conditions have no influence on responses. Yet when the question is asked unobtrusively, the opposite emerges. Answers do not vary by sectarian community membership, but respond strongly to material conditions: poorer people of all sects are more supportive of illiterate voting rights.

Biography

Daniel Corstange is a visiting fellow at the Kellogg Institute for the spring 2008 semester, pursuing his research on development in divided societies. With particular interests in ethnic politics, the political economy of development, and research methodology, he specializes in the Middle East and has conducted field research in both Lebanon and Yemen, as well as undergoing two years of intensive language training in Egypt.

Corstange´s specific focus of study is the role of ethnic competition and conflict in economic development. While at Kellogg, he plans to identify additional cases for comparative study as well as construct a cross-national dataset of development and institutional data in order to test the generalizability of his findings.