Indirect Colonial Rule Undermines Support for Democracy
CPSXXX10.1177/0010414018758760Comparative Political StudiesLechler and McNamee 758760research-article2018 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Universität München: Elektronischen Publikationen Article Comparative Political Studies 2018, Vol. 51(14) 1858 –1898 Indirect Colonial Rule © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: Undermines Support for sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414018758760DOI: 10.1177/0010414018758760 Democracy: Evidence journals.sagepub.com/home/cps From a Natural Experiment in Namibia Marie Lechler1 and Lachlan McNamee2 Abstract This article identifies indirect and direct colonial rule as causal factors in shaping support for democracy by exploiting a within-country natural experiment in Namibia. Throughout the colonial era, northern Namibia was indirectly ruled through a system of appointed indigenous traditional elites whereas colonial authorities directly ruled southern Namibia. This variation originally stems from where the progressive extension of direct German control was stopped after a rinderpest epidemic in the 1890s, and, thus, constitutes plausibly exogenous within-country variation in the form of colonial rule. Using this spatial discontinuity, we find that individuals in indirectly ruled areas are less likely to support democracy and turnout at elections. We explore potential mechanisms and find suggestive evidence that the greater influence of traditional leaders in indirectly ruled areas has socialized individuals to accept nonelectoral bases of political authority. Keywords indirect colonial rule, decentralized despotism, natural experiment, political attitudes, democratic consolidation, Namibia, democratic institutions, sub- Saharan Africa, spatial RDD 1University of Munich, Germany 2Stanford University, CA, USA Corresponding Author: Marie Lechler, Department of Economics, University of Munich, Schackstraße 4, Munich 80539, Germany.
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