Why Vote for a Co-Opted Party? Endogenous Government Power Increases and Control of Opposition Politicians in Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

Why do voters in electoral autocracies vote for opposition parties that are co-opted by the government? The logic of electoral accountability should lead constituents to vote such parties out, and parties, knowing this, should never agree to be co-opted. Yet there is evidence that constituents often do not sanction opposition parties for failing to prevent the government from consolidating power. Standard accountability models suggest that this accountability failure is due to the parties having developed good reputations. This article develops a formal theory that offers a novel explanation for accountability failures specific to electoral autocracies. The theory shows how a consolidation of power by an authoritarian regime, increasing its ability to punish opposition politicians, can lead citizens not to vote opposition parties out of office even after seeing them fail to prevent a consolidation of power.