https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9389-9104
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ABSTRACT
Countries that undergo a democratic transition often adopt youth quotas to ensure stability and legitimacy in the eyes of a potentially rebellious youth cohort. Tunisia followed this trend by instating a youth quota after undergoing a youth-led democratic revolution in 2011. This subsequently led to youth representing 52% of the candidates (aged 18–35) in the 2018 municipal elections. However, it has yet to be tested whether a candidate’s age matters when evaluating politicians and casting a ballot in elections among Tunisian voters. This article explores the link between age and candidate evaluations which has been largely understudied in the political behaviour literature. Using an original survey experiment fielded in Tunisia, I run a series of regressions that model the relationship between several age treatments and candidate evaluations. Overall, I find that most Tunisians do not use age as a heuristic cue when evaluating political candidates running for office with the exception of the oldest voters who tend to prefer a candidate that is in their 50s. These results showcase the potential limitations of youth quotas serving as a mechanism ascertaining governmental legitimacy in the eyes of young people.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr. Peter J. Schraeder, Dr. Peter Sanchez, and Dr. David Doherty for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, as well as Nourelhouda Zakariyaa for her research assistance in Tunisia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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2 Volpi, “Pseudo-democracy in the Muslim World.”
3 Edgell, “Foreign Aid, Democracy, and Gender Quota Laws.”
4 Sater, “Changing Politics from Below?”
5 lbid.
6 Belschner, “The Adoption of Youth Quotas”; Anderson and Swiss, “Peace Accords”; Hughes, “Armed Conflict”; Tajali, “Gender Quota Adoption.”
7 Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Youth Participation in National Parliaments 2016,” 17.
8 Beissinger, Jamal, and Mazur, “Explaining Divergent Revolutionary Coalitions.”
9 NDI, “Final Report.”
10 Cincotta, “Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tells Us.”
11 Iyad, Abid, personal communication with author, 2016.
12 Honwana, Youth and Revolution in Tunisia.
13 Parker, “Tunisian Youth.”
14 Petré, “Why Aren’t Young People Voting?”
15 Yerkes, “Where Have all the Revolutionaries Gone?”
16 Olivesi, “Tunisia Looks Set to Move Forward.”
17 Blackman, Clark, and Sasmaz, “Introducing the Tunisian Local Election Candidate Survey.”
18 Tunisia’s Constitution of 2014.
19 Carnegie Endowment for Peace, “Tunisia’s Municipal Elections.”
20 Nouira, “Tunisia’s Local Elections.”
21 Gerchewski, “The Three Pillars of Stability.”
22 Abbink, “Being Young in Africa.”
23 Popkin, The Reasoning Voter; Lupia, “Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias.”
24 Rhan, “The Role of Partisan Stereotypes.”
25 Conover and Feldman, “Candidate Perception in an Ambiguous World.”
26 Sniderman, Brody, and Tetlock, Reasoning and Choice.
27 Mutz, “Mechanisms of Momentum.”
28 Lau and Redlawsk, “Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics.”
29 McDermott, “Race and Gender Cues.”
30 Banducci et al., “Ballot Photographs and Cues in Low Information Elections”; Olivola and Todorov, “Elected in 100 Milliseconds”; Shepard and Johns, “Candidate Image and Electoral Preference in Britain”; Todorov et al., “Inferences of Competence.”
31 Campbell and Cowley, “What Voters Want”; Cutler, “The Simplest Shortcut of All”; Leeper, “The Impact of Prejudice on Female Candidates”; McDermott, “Race and Gender Cues”; Sanbonmatsu, “Gender Stereotypes and Vote Choice”; Sigelman et al., “Black Candidates, White Voters.”
32 Johnston et al. Letting the People Decide, 169.
33 Pantoja and Segura, “Does Ethnicity Matter?”
34 Sigelman et al. “Black Candidates, White Voters”; Tate, From Protest to Politics; Terkildsen, “When White Voters Evaluate Black Candidates.”
35 Bergh and Bjorklund, “The Revival of Group Voting”; Teney et al., “Ethnic Voting in Brussels.”
36 Heath, Verniers, and Kumar, “Do Muslim Voters Prefer Muslim Candidates?”
37 Beaman et al., “Powerful Women”; Herrick and Sapieva, “Perception of Women Politician”; Huddy and Terkildsen, “Gender Stereotypes”; Matland and King, “Women as Candidates”; Matland, “Putting Scandinavian Equality to the Test”; Matland and Tezcur, “Women as Candidates.”
38 Dolan, Voting for Women, “Electoral Context, Issues and Voting,” “Voting for Women.”
39 Smith and Fox, “The Electoral Fortunes of Women Candidates.”
40 Campbell and Heath, “Do Women Candidates Vote for Women Candidates?”
41 McElroy and Marsh, “Candidate Gender and Vote Choice.”
42 Campbell and Heath, “Do Women Candidates Vote for Women Candidates?”
43 Baumgartner and Morris, “The Daily Show Effect.”
44 Winfrey, Warner, and Banwart, “Gender Identification and Young Voters.”
45 Douglas et al., “Community Matters.”
46 Webster and Pierce, “Older, Younger, or More Similar?”
47 The 2018 Tunisia survey was conducted in partnership with BJKA Consulting, a local survey company based in Tunis, Tunisia.
48 Grose, “Disentangling Constituency and Legislator Effects.”
49 BBC News, “Beji Caid Essebsi.”
50 Belschner, “The Adoption of Youth Quotas.”
51 Ishkanian and Glasius, “What Does Democracy Mean?”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kirstie Lynn Dobbs
Kirstie Lynn Dobbs is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at Merrimack College in North Andover, United States. Her research focuses on political behaviour in transitioning democracies with a particular emphasis on elections, public opinion, and youth in the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has been published in a number of journals, including the Journal of North African Studies, Politics, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.