Understanding Institutional Persistence: Exposure to Community-Driven Development and the Value of Autonomy and Democracy

Why don't communities adopt democratic or inclusive institutions after a community- driven development program, despite professing higher pro-social values in surveys? Using a novel field experiment which elicits ex-ante valuation of di􏰄erent decision-making processes, combined with a randomly-assigned community-driven development program, we distinguish between three potential explanations: experimenter demand e􏰄ects in surveys; preferences over autonomy and democracy; and resistance to change from vested interests.