The paper proposes a mechanism explaining how elections may stabilize an autocratic regime even if they are evidently unfree and unfair. Instead of being meaningless rituals, non-democratic elections can help the autocrats in managing and communicating the public information about the regime's...

Using ANES data on political knowledge and opinions about government, this research examines the electorate's ability to cast rational votes based simply upon the number of major contests on the ballot. Focusing particularly upon knowledge of house and senate candidates, this also has...

Recent scholarship heralds the emergence of programmatic legislative parties in Brazil capable of acting in a disciplined manner and making policy-based appeals to voters. This article uses statutory delegation to test the ability of legislative parties to limit executive policy discretion via...