Biased Policy and Political Behavior: The Case of Uneven Removal of Elected Mayors in Israel

Unlike the previous literature on mass policy feedback, the present study argues that a negative message embodied in public policy may foster or dampen political participation depending on social group affiliation. The policy change we use to examine the effect of biased policy (a perceived negative message) on political behavior is the removal of elected mayors that were replaced by an appointed committee in a large number of Arab and Jewish municipalities in Israel, which was skewed significantly toward Arab municipalities. We show that Arab voters in intervened municipalities are more likely to show up at the ballot boxes in national elections and they tend to vote more for Arab parties. In contrast, the political participation of Jewish citizens is lower in municipalities with an appointed council without noticeable effect on vote choice. Related Articles Avigur‐Eshel , Amit . 2018 . “.” Politics & Policy 46 (): 84 ‐ 109 . https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12241 Harel‐Shalev , Ayelet . 2009 . “.” Politics & Policy 37 (): 951 ‐ 970 . https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00206.x Tusalem , Rollin F . 2015 . “.” Politics & Policy 43 (): 502 ‐ 537 . https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12125 Related Media . 2009 . “.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzDRjk9RQw