Public participation in democracy, local accountability and happiness: Evidence from rural China
研究中国农村村级民主改革如何影响居民幸福感，发现直接提名（高公众参与竞争性选举）能提升幸福感，机制是改善地方问责和治理绩效。
Abstract This study examines how an important reform of local governance—village democracy—in the world's most populous areas has affected the happiness of residents in rural China. We find that introducing elections per se has no significant impact. In comparison, direct nomination of local leaders by villagers, which is a form of competitive election involving a high degree of public participation in political decision making, leads to higher levels of happiness. Further mechanism analyses show that direct nomination improves the local accountability of elected leaders by boosting the quality and effort of village heads and their governance performance by lowering the tax burden of villagers and vitalizing local public services. Our results highlight the importance of public participation in democracy and the underlying role of local accountability in affecting the subjective well‐beings of citizens.