Do elected officials shape citizen priorities? A field experiment tested email advocacy by local officials. Officials sent emails advocating for specific issues or using placebo messages. Constituents surveyed before and after the intervention revealed limited influence on policy preferences. Those receiving priority emails showed no increased petition action.
Keywords & Methods
• Field Experiment • Email Advocacy • Local Elected Officials • Placebo Control Group • Citizens' Priorities • Policy Support Survey • Petition Action
Findings
• No significant shift in citizen priorities following email advocacy campaigns by officials.
• Lack of increased petition signing among recipients exposed to priority-indicating messages.
Implications
This suggests politicians struggle to change the policy preferences even of their most engaged constituents. The results question common assumptions about direct communication effectively shaping political agendas.
| On the Limits on Officials' Ability to Change Citizens' Priorities: A Field Experiment in Local Politics was authored by Daniel Butler and Hans Hassell. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2018. |
