Exporting Democratic Practices: Evidence from a Village Governance Intervention in Eastern Congo

Abstract

We study a randomized Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) intervention that provided two years of exposure to democratic practices in 1,250 villages in eastern Congo. To assess impacts, we examine behavior in a later village-level unconditional cash transfer project that distributed $1,000 to 457 treatment and control villages. The exercise provides opportunities to assess whether public funds get captured, what governance practices are employed by villagers and village elites and whether the intervention altered these behaviors. We find no evidence for such effects. The results cast doubt on current attempts to export democratic practices to local communities.

Keywords: Political Processes, Political Economy, Institutions, Culture, Demonstration Effects, Congo

JEL Classification: D72, P48, D02, O17