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Electoral Responsiveness in Closed Autocracies: Evidence from Petitions in the former German Democratic Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

HANS LUEDERS Open the ORCID record for HANS LUEDERS [Opens in a new window]
HANS LUEDERS*
Affiliation:
Stanford University, United States
*
Hans Lueders, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, United States, hlueders@stanford.edu.
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Abstract

Contested elections are usually seen as precondition for constituent responsiveness. By contrast, I show that even uncontested elections can create incentives for autocratic regimes to address citizen demands. I propose that closed autocracies engage in cycles of responsiveness before uncontested elections to assure citizens of their competence and raise popular support. They do so to mitigate the short-term destabilizing effects of elections. Analyzing a unique dataset of petitions to the government of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), I calculate that response times to petitions were up to 31% shorter before the GDR’s uncontested elections. Moreover, I introduce the concept of “substantive responsiveness,” which focuses on the material consequences of responsiveness for petitioners, and show that petitions were 64% more likely to be successful. The paper advances our understanding of electoral mobilization in closed regimes and contributes to an emerging research agenda on responsiveness and accountability in autocracies.

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Type
Research Article
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American Political Science Review , Volume 116 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 827 - 842
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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