Corrupt Political Jurisdictions and Voter Participation

Authors

William F. Shughart II, Utah State UniversityFollow
Gokhan R. Karahan
R. Morris Coats

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Public Choice

Volume

126

Publication Date

2006

First Page

87

Last Page

106

Abstract

An FBI investigation of county purchasing activities in the mid 1980s resulted in the conviction of 55 of Mississippi's 410 county supervisors. Analyzing data from the state's 1987 county supervisor elections and hypothesizing that candidates' demands for votes increase as the gains from holding public office increase, we predict larger voter turnouts in the 26 of the state's 82 counties where supervisor corruption was exposed. Holding constant average voter turnout in the preceding U.S. presidential election and controlling for the competitiveness of supervisor races, we find that more Mississippians indeed voted in corrupt than in non-corrupt counties.

Recommended Citation

“Corrupt Political Jurisdictions and Voter Participation” (with Gökhan R. Karahan and R. Morris Coats), Public Choice 126 (January 2006), pp. 87–106; abstracted in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.