Climate Change & Corruption

How do policy promises affect voting behavior among African voters? Using an experimental method and mobile technology, this project measures the impacts of policy promises with different time horizons and relative issues saliences. Authors hypothesize that (1) Receiving a text message encouraging voting will increase likelihood of voting; (2) Receiving a message with a party platform emphasizing short-run policies will increase likelihood of supporting that party; and (3) Receiving a text message with a party platform emphasizing salient problems will increase likelihood of supporting that party. Across two experimental studies, results found that voters in Sub-Saharan African countries are less likely to support a politician who committed to climate change policies, preferring more immediate benefits. As a result, voter preferences may pose a barrier to climate change policy enactment in democracies in this region.