Hostname: page-component-669899f699-cf6xr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T05:27:41.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“I wld like u WMP to extend electricity 2 our village”: On Information Technology and Interest Articulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2014

GUY GROSSMAN ,
MACARTAN HUMPHREYS  and
GABRIELLA SACRAMONE-LUTZ
GUY GROSSMAN*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
MACARTAN HUMPHREYS*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
GABRIELLA SACRAMONE-LUTZ*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
*
Guy Grossman is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania. Contact: 208 S. 37th St. (225 Stiteler Hall) Philadelphia, PA 19104 ([email protected]).
Macartan Humphreys is Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University. Contact: 812 IAB Building, 420 West 118th St., New York, NY 10027 ([email protected]).
Gabriella Sacramone-Lutz is Ph.D. student, Department of Political Science, Columbia University ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How does access to information communication technology (ICT) affect who gets heard and what gets communicated to politicians? On the one hand, ICT can lower communication costs for poorer constituents; on the other, technological channels may be used disproportionately more by the already well connected. To assess the flattening effects of ICTs, we presented a representative sample of constituents in Uganda with an opportunity to send a text message to their representatives at one of three randomly assigned prices. Critically, and contrary to concerns that technological innovations benefit the privileged, we find evidence that ICT can lead to significant flattening: a greater share of marginalized populations use this channel compared to existing political communication channels. Price plays a more complex role. Subsidizing the full cost of messaging increases uptake by over 40%. Surprisingly however, subsidy-induced increases in uptake do not yield further flattening since free channels are not used at higher rates by more marginalized constituents.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 108 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 688 - 705
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Aday, Sean, Henry, Farrell, Marc, Lynch, John, Sides, and Freelon, Deen. 2012. “Blogs and Bullets II: New Media and Conflict after the Arab Spring.” Technical report, United States Institute of Peace.Google Scholar
Anderson, Michael L. 2008. “Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 103 (484): 1481–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashworth, Scott. 2012. “Electoral Accountability: Recent Theoretical and Empirical Work.” Annual Review of Political Science 15 (1): 183–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bachrach, Peter, and Baratz, Morton S. 1962. “Two Faces of Power.” American Political Science Review 56 (4): 947–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailard, Catie Snow. 2009. “Mobile Phone Diffusion and Corruption in Africa.” Political Communication 26 (3): 333–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbas, Jason, and Jerit, Jennifer. 2010. “Are Survey Experiments Externally Valid?” American Political Science Review 104 (2): 226–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkan, Joel D., Mattes, Robert, Mozaffar, Shaheen, and Smiddy, Kimberly. 2010. “The African Legislatures Project: First Findings.” CSSR Working Paper No. 277.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal Democracy: the Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Bimber, Bruce, and Copeland, Lauren. 2013. “Digital Media and Traditional Political Participation Over Time in the U.S.” Journal of Information Technology & Politics 10: 125–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaschke, Sean M., Carroll, Peter P., Chaves, Daniela Rojas, Findley, Michael G., Gleave, Madeleine C., Morello, Robert N., and Nielson, Daniel L.. 2013. “Extrinsic, Intrinsic, and Social Incentives for Crowdsourcing Development Information in Uganda: A Field Experiment.” Mimeo.Google Scholar
Bleck, Jaimie, and van de Walle, Nicolas. 2013. “Valence Issues in African Elections: Navigating Uncertainty and the Weight of the Past.” Comparative Political Studies 46 (11): 1394–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boulianne, Shelley. 2009. “Does Internet Use Affect Engagement? A Meta-Analysis of Research.” Political Communication 26 (2): 193–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breuer, Anita, Landmann, Todd, and Farquhar, Dorothea. 2012. “Social Media and Protest Mobilization: Evidence from the Tunisian Revolution.” Mimeo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cammett, Melani, and Issar, Sukriti. 2010. “Bricks and Mortar Clientelism: Sectarianism and the Logics of Welfare Allocation in Lebanon.” World Politics 62 (3): 381–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Duflo, Esther. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5): 1409–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Jessica, and Dupas, Pascaline. 2010. “Free Distribution or Cost-Sharing? Evidence from a Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 125 (1): 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1958. “A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model.” American Political Science Review 52 (2): 463–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2010. “Liberation Technology.” Journal of Democracy 21 (3): 69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digeser, Peter. 1992. “The Fourth Face of Power.” Journal of Politics 54 (4): 977–1007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gans, Curtis. 2010. “2010 Primary Voter Data Research.” Technical report Center for the Study of the American Electorate, American University’s School of Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Grossman, Guy, and Lewis, Janet I.. 2014. “Administrative Unit Proliferation.” American Political Science Review 108 (1): 196–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafkin, Nancy J., and Huyer, Sophia. 2007. “Women and Gender in ICT Statistics and Indicators for Development.” Information Technologies and International Development 4 (2): 25–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, Masters, William A., and Sandbu, Martin E.. 2006. “The Role of Leaders in Democratic Deliberations: Results from a Field Experiment in São Tomé and Príncipe.” World Politics 58 (4): 583–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2012. “Policing Politicians: Citizen Empowerment and Political Accountability in Uganda.” Working Paper.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, King, Gary, and Stuart, Elizabeth A.. 2008. “Misunderstandings between Experimentalists and Observationalists about Causal Inference.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 171 (2): 481–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessides, Christine. 2005. “The Urban Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction.” The World Bank, Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 97 .Google Scholar
Kremer, Michael, and Miguel, Edward. 2007. “The Illusion of Sustainability.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 122 (3): 1007–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan I. 2010. “What Accountability Pressures do MPs in Africa Face and how do they Respond? Evidence from Ghana.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 48 (1): 117–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 1974. Power: A Radical View. Vol. 1, London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and Elman, Colin. 2014. “Openness in Political Science: Data Access and Research Transparency.” PS: Political Science & Politics 47: 19–42.Google Scholar
Magnusson, Finnur. 2013. How to Write a Constitution in the 21st Century. In Presented at Right to Information and Transparency in the Digital Age Conference. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University.Google Scholar
Meltzer, Allan H., and Richard, Scott F.. 1981. “A Rational Theory of the Size of Government.” Journal of Political Economy 89 (5): 914–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miard, Fabien. 2009. “Call for Power? Mobile Phones as Facilitators of Political Activism.” ISA 50th Annual Convention.Google Scholar
Miguel, E., Camerer, C., Casey, K., Cohen, J., Esterling, K. M., Gerber, A., Glennerster, R., Green, D. P., Humphreys, M., Imbens, G., Laitin, D., Madon, T., Nelson, L., Nosek, B. A., Petersen, M., Sedlmayr, R., Simmons, J. P., Simonsohn, U., and Van der Laan, M.. 2014. “Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research.” Science 343 (6166): 30–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oates, Briony J. 2003. “The Potential Contribution of ICTs to the Political Process.” Electronic Journal of e-Government 1 (1): 31–9.Google Scholar
Pande, Rohini. 2011. “Can Informed Voters Enforce Better Governance? Experiments in Low-Income Democracies.” Annual Review of Economics 3: 215–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Sora. 2009. “Concentration of Internet Usage and its Relation to Exposure to Negative Content: Does the Gender Gap Differ Among Adults and Adolescents?” Women’s Studies International Forum 32 (2): 98–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierskalla, Jan H., and Hollenback, Florian M.. 2013. “Technology and Collective Action: The Effect of Cell Phone Coverage on Political Violence in Africa.” American Political Science Review 107 (2): 207–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirazi, Farid, Ngwenyama, Ojelanki, and Morawczynski, Olga. 2010. “ICT Expansion and the Digital Divide in Democratic Freedoms: An Analysis of the Impact of ICT Expansion, Education and ICT Filtering on Democracy.” Telematics and Informatics 27 (1): 21–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirky, Clay. 2011. “Political Power of Social Media - Technology, the Public Sphere Sphere, and Political Change.” Foreign Affairs 90: 28–41.Google Scholar
Smith, Alastair, LaGatta, Tom, and Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce. 2013. “Prizes, Groups and Pivotality In a Poisson Voting Game Game.” Mimeo, NYU.Google Scholar
Suárez, Sandra L. 2006. “Mobile Democracy: Text Messages, Voters Turnout and the 2004 Spanish General Election.” Representation 42 (2): 117–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Mark. 2008. “ICT and Development Studies: Towards Development 2.0.” Journal of International Development 20 (6): 821–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wantchekon, Leonard. 2003. “Clientelism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin.” World Politics 55 (3): 399–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Grossman supplementary materials

Grossman supplementary materials

Download Grossman supplementary materials(PDF)
PDF 103.1 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.