The Democracy Premium in Expressive Law: An Experiment

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Abstract: Why do people obey the law when it is not formally enforced? In this study, we explore the power of democracy as a behaviour channel of compliance with the law in a normative ambiguous context. Using a modified version of the taking game, we examine the effect of two distinct democratic interventions on stealing: a voting procedure in which the outcome is revealed and a voting procedure in which the outcome of the vote remains unknown. We find that revealing the outcome of a democratic vote significantly reduces stealing relative to a baseline treatment without a vote and treatment in which the outcome of the vote remains unknown. We also observe that participants expressing a vote against stealing are more likely to steal nonetheless when the outcome remains unknown. Our findings have important implications for the design of expressive law and democratic voting procedures.

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