How should Tanzania use its natural gas? Citizens’ views from a nationwide deliberative poll
| dc.creator | Birdsall, N | |
| dc.creator | Fishkin, J | |
| dc.creator | Haqqi, F | |
| dc.creator | Kinyondo, Abel | |
| dc.creator | Moyo, M | |
| dc.creator | Richmond, J | |
| dc.creator | Sandefur, J | |
| dc.date | 2018-04-03T13:13:39Z | |
| dc.date | 2018-04-03T13:13:39Z | |
| dc.date | 2017 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-04-11T08:38:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-04-11T08:38:46Z | |
| dc.description | Public opinion is often treated as an obstacle to good governance in resource-rich developing countries, associated with populist policies and excess consumption. Can ordinary citizens in a low-income democracy make meaningful judgements about complex resource management issues? We report on a nationwide poll of voting-age adults in Tanzania, where large natural gas reserves were recently discovered. Results from a randomized experiment within our nationwide polling sample show that the combination of information and extended, structured, and participatory deliberation generated (i) a measurable increase in knowledge of the gas sector; (ii) increased support for sale of natural gas and reduced support for energy subsidies; (iii) no change in support for saving versus spending gas revenues; (iv) a sharp decline in support for direct cash distribution of resource rents to citizens; (v) increased support for spending on social services as opposed to infrastructure; and (vi) a marginally significant increase in support for transparency and oversight measures. Democratic deliberation appears to be the key to these changes; the information treatment alone produced no significant impacts, and impacts did not spill over onto individuals in the same community who did not participate in deliberation. As part of a second-order experiment to measure public accountability, we provided the citizens’ polling results to elites before polling them on a subset of the same questions. Our analysis indicates that elites demonstrate a tendency to align their views with public opinion on most major issues. | |
| dc.identifier | Birdsall, N., Fishkin, J., Haqqi, F., Kinyondo, A., Moyo, M., Richmond, J., and Sandefur, J. (2017). “How should Tanzania use its natural gas? Citizens’ views from a nationwide deliberative poll”. International Initiative for Impact Evaluation. Washington, DC. | |
| dc.identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/4670 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/4670 | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.publisher | International Initiative for Impact Evaluation | |
| dc.title | How should Tanzania use its natural gas? Citizens’ views from a nationwide deliberative poll | |
| dc.type | Conference Paper |