Responsiveness of Local Politicians to Immigrants Does Not Vary Systematically by Voting Rights

Abstract

Are politicians more responsive to foreign citizens if they have the right to vote? To examine this question, we exploit regional variation in voting rights for foreign citizens in Switzerland. Our original audit experiments find no evidence that local politicians are more responsive to foreign citizens depending on whether foreign citizens have the right to vote. Another survey suggests that local politicians are not strongly motivated by reelection. Although our findings are preliminary, given the small sample size, they may indicate that responsiveness at the local level may differ from the national level.