Is Culture the Cause? Choices, Expectations and Electoral Politics in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea

Research on Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea typically offers one of two explanations for the choices voters make, and the way these choices contribute to those countries’ poor political governance. The first explanation focuses on culture’s influence on the expectations that voters hold of politicians, contending that the Big Man style of local leadership traditionally found in both countries has shaped voter expectations in ways that cause voters to demand local or personal benefits from MPs rather than good national governance. The second explanation hinges on rational choice models of voter behaviour and does not include culture in its list of explanatory variables. In this paper I argue that neither explanation fits well with key features of these countries’ politics. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data I show that, while voters are broadly rational and can readily distinguish modern politics from traditional leadership, culture still matters. In particular, informal institutions, associated with the countries’ cultural contexts, influence voter behaviour and electoral collective action, and through this political governance.

文化作为原因?: 所罗门群岛和巴布亚新几内亚的选择、期望和选举政治

关键词：政治文化，理性选择，所罗门群岛，巴布亚新几内亚，选举政治

所罗门群岛和巴布亚新几内亚研究通常会对选民的选择以及这些选择如何导致这些国家低劣的治理水平给出以下两种解释之一：第一种解释集中在文化如何影响选民对政治家的期待上，提出两国传统中地方领袖的大人物风格塑造了选民对政治家的期望，导致选民从议员身上寻求的不是良好的国家治理，而是地方或者个人收益。第二种解释依靠的是选民行为的理性选择模型，而并没有把文化列入它的解释变量中。我在本论文中提出, 两种解释都不切合这两个国家政治的关键特征。本文利用定量及定性数据表明，尽管选民广义上是理性的，并能将现代政治与传统领袖区分开来，但文化仍然起到很大的作用。特别是与这些国家的文化背景相关联的非正式制度影响着选民行为和选举中的集体行动，并通过这一过程影响到政治治理。

Transted from English by Li Guo