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SUMMARY:Does Democracy Die in Darkness? Electricity Outages & Electoral Ac
 countability in South Africa - Morgan Wack (University of Zurich)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251202T123000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251202T140000Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/01291828-4514-4084-ac7d-f6b8ce683f3b/
DESCRIPTION:Large-scale disruptions to everyday infrastructure are becomin
 g more frequent due to climate change\, population growth\, and increased 
 user demand. While the political consequences of gradual changes in public
  service quality are relatively well understood\, we know less about the e
 lectoral consequences of public service breakdowns where these services we
 re once reliable and readily accessible. To address this critical question
 \, I use the quasi-random allocation of electric outages in South Africa t
 o examine how the breakdown of public services influences voting behavior.
  I show that each additional hour of outages in the week before the 2021 e
 lections lowered the incumbent's vote share. Crucially\, this effect was p
 rimarily driven by decreased turnout among incumbent supporters\, particul
 arly in areas lacking credible opposition parties. These findings are furt
 her validated using individual-level responses from South African survey r
 espondents. With energy crises expected to intensify over the next several
  decades\, the results have implications for the literatures on public-goo
 ds provision\, climate resilience\, and democratic accountability.\nSpeake
 rs:\nMorgan Wack (University of Zurich)
LOCATION:Nuffield College (Lecture Theatre (L staircase))\, New Road OX1 1
 NF
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/01291828-4514-4084-ac7d-f6b8ce683f3b/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Does Democracy Die in Darkness? Electricity Outages & Ele
 ctoral Accountability in South Africa - Morgan Wack (University of Zurich)
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