Replication Data for: The Lessons Private Schools Teach: Using a Field Experiment to Understand the Effects of Private Services on Political Behavior

Government services act as important sites of political socialization. Through interactions with the state individuals learn lessons about their value as citizens, form preferences over government services, and understand the value of political participation. What happens when the private sector replaces government provision of basic services? I explore this question in the context of a randomized private school voucher experiment in India. Based on an original household survey of 1,200 households, and semi-structured interviews conducted five years after the voucher lottery, I find that voucher winning households hold stronger market-oriented beliefs. However, voucher winning households show little difference in political participation on most measures of political participation. I argue that these results are driven by a greater comfort with private providers as permanent economic actors. This suggests exposure to different economic actors, in the form of private schools, have the potential to change political preferences.

政府服务是政治社会化（political socialization）的重要场域。个体通过与国家的互动，能够认知自身作为公民的价值、形成对政府服务的政策偏好，并理解政治参与的意义。当私营部门取代政府提供基本公共服务时，将会产生何种影响？本文依托印度的一项随机私立学校代金券实验探讨这一问题。研究基于针对1200户家庭的原创家庭入户调查，以及代金券抽签五年后开展的半结构化访谈，结果显示：获配代金券的家庭持有更强烈的市场导向信念。不过在多数政治参与衡量指标上，获配代金券家庭的政治参与程度并无显著差异。本文认为，上述结果源于这类家庭更适应作为永久性经济主体的私营服务提供者。这表明，以私立学校为载体接触不同经济主体，有可能改变个体的政治偏好。