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A field experiment in rural Liberia is used to study democratic participation in fragile states. Fragile states are marked by political fragmentation, local patronage systems, and voter vulnerability. To understand the effects of such conditions on democratic expression through elections, the experiment introduced new forms of interaction between rural citizens and third-party actors: (i) civic education and town hall workshops directed by non-governmental organizations in communities over nine months and (ii) security committees that brought rural community representatives into monthly exchange with United Nations peacekeepers. Civic education workshops increased enthusiasm for electoral participation, produced a coordinated shift from parochial to national candidates, and increased willingness to report on manipulation. A program combining the two interactions had similar effects. The security committees had negligible effects. Barriers to political information and voter coordination appear to be important but resolvable problems for elections in fragile states.

Access to information --- Accounting --- Allegiance --- Anarchy --- Attrition --- Ballot box --- Banking --- Candidates --- Channels of communication --- Citizen access --- Civic education --- Civics --- Civil society --- Collective action --- Committees --- Community members --- Constituencies --- Constituent --- Constituents --- Crises --- Democracies --- Democracy --- Development economics --- Dictatorial regimes --- E-Government --- Economic conditions --- Economics --- Educational attainment --- Effects --- Election --- Election outcome --- Elections --- Electoral choices --- Electoral information --- Electoral participation --- Electoral systems --- Factions --- Forms of participation --- Free press --- Freedom --- Freedoms --- Governance --- Government --- Governments --- Incentives --- Income --- Information --- Innovations --- International peace --- Labor policies --- Law --- Liberty --- Literacy rates --- Loyalty --- Mobile phone --- Monitoring --- Monopolies --- Motivation --- Nation --- National elections --- Ordinary citizens --- Organizations --- Outcomes --- Parliamentary government --- Participants --- Participation --- Participation variables --- Party members --- Patronage --- Peace --- Pluralism --- Policies --- Policy issues --- Political authority --- Political behavior --- Political change --- Political culture --- Political democracy --- Political discussion --- Political economy --- Political information --- Political landscape --- Political leaders --- Political participation --- Political pluralism --- Political rights --- Political science --- Politicians --- Politics --- Politics and government --- Queen --- Representatives --- Rights --- Security --- Social protections and labor --- Terrorism --- Theory --- Training --- United Nations --- Value --- Vote choice --- Voter participation --- Voter turnout --- Voting --- Voting rights

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Citizens are political simpletons--that is only a modest exaggeration of a common characterization of voters. Certainly, there is no shortage of evidence of citizens' limited political knowledge, even about matters of the highest importance, along with inconsistencies in their thinking, some glaring by any standard. But this picture of citizens all too often approaches caricature. Paul Sniderman and Benjamin Highton bring together leading political scientists who offer new insights into the political thinking of the public, the causes of party polarization, the motivations for political participation, and the paradoxical relationship between turnout and democratic representation. These studies propel a foundational argument about democracy. Voters can only do as well as the alternatives on offer. These alternatives are constrained by third players, in particular activists, interest groups, and financial contributors. The result: voters often appear to be shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent because the alternatives they must choose between are shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent. Facing the Challenge of Democracy features contributions by John Aldrich, Stephen Ansolabehere, Edward Carmines, Jack Citrin, Susanna Dilliplane, Christopher Ellis, Michael Ensley, Melanie Freeze, Donald Green, Eitan Hersh, Simon Jackman, Gary Jacobson, Matthew Knee, Jonathan Krasno, Arthur Lupia, David Magleby, Eric McGhee, Diana Mutz, Candice Nelson, Benjamin Page, Kathryn Pearson, Eric Schickler, John Sides, James Stimson, Lynn Vavreck, Michael Wagner, Mark Westlye, and Tao Xie.

Public opinion --- Political participation --- United States --- Politics and government --- 1950s sociology. --- 2008 National Annenberg Election Study. --- American party system. --- American politics. --- American public opinion. --- Election Day registration. --- George W. Bush. --- John McCain. --- NAES. --- Pure Independents. --- Sarah Palin. --- U.S. elections. --- U.S. senators. --- U.SЃhina relations. --- Who Votes?. --- activism. --- alternative modeling strategies. --- campaign strategy. --- candidate-centered campaigns. --- candidate-centered voting. --- challenger partisans. --- citizen competence. --- citizen preferences. --- citizens. --- civic engagement. --- closing dates. --- cognition. --- conflict of interest. --- congressional elections. --- conservative identification. --- cosmopolitan orientation. --- cosmopolitanism. --- democracy. --- democratic representation. --- election outcomes. --- electoral preferences. --- elite-driven theory. --- foreign policy. --- ideological conservatives. --- ideological consistency. --- ideological contradiction. --- ideological polarization. --- ideological shift. --- incumbent partisans. --- independent voter. --- independents. --- institution-free approach. --- institutions. --- issue preferences. --- job approval ratings. --- liberal policy preferences. --- mass belief systems. --- mass opinion. --- modern political campaigns. --- nonvoters. --- ordinary citizens. --- participatory bias. --- partisan bias. --- partisan differences. --- partisan differential. --- partisan polarization. --- party identification. --- party polarization. --- party-centered voting. --- polarization. --- policy preference heuristics. --- policy preferences. --- political activism. --- political behavior. --- political candidates. --- political consistency. --- political participation. --- political participations. --- political parties. --- political preferences. --- political right. --- political scientists. --- politically coherent choices. --- politics. --- public opinion surveys. --- public opinion. --- public. --- purposive belief systems. --- purposive reasoning. --- registration deadlines. --- roll-call behavior. --- social spaces. --- universal turnout. --- vote choice. --- vote misreporting. --- vote models. --- vote preference. --- vote validation study. --- voter turnout. --- voters. --- votes.