Publication

This paper examines why elected leaders undertake institutional reforms, such as voting rule change or decentralization. More specifically, the authors ask why such politicians, who often have short-term priorities due to their need to win elections, take on institutional reform when such changes have long-term and potentially unforeseeable consequences. To answer this question, they use evidence from decentralization processes in Bolivia an Pakistan and find that politicians often undertake such reform to deal with short-term political problems. They then highlight how understanding the initial short-term problem that led to the reform is very important when analyzing the characteristics of the reform implemented as well as its potential for success.