2,360 rated or chosen profiles from 2,360 respondents, in up to 1 tasks of 1 profile varying on 2 attributes.

About this table

Description	Voters in North Maharashtra, India (in-person survey, n = 2,360) read one vignette about a village council president whose gender (Bharti/Rohit, female/male) and caste (Kamble/Marathe, Dalit/Maratha) were randomized 2x2, and judged whether the president would hold real decision-making authority, would resign under elite pressure, and would face backlash.
Reference	Heinze, A. R. (2025). Democratic deepening or elite persistence? How local elites adapt to electoral reform in rural India. American Political Science Review.
DOI	10.1017/S0003055425101068
Licence	CC0 1.0
Source data	https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QGH7P4

Notes

Conjoint table (irw_conjoint). Factorial vignette (2 gender x 2 caste, equal probabilities), one president per respondent; three 0/1 ratings: president most active in village decisions (1) vs someone else (0), would resign (1) vs resist (0) when elites ask, would likely face backlash (1) vs not (0). Gender and caste were each signalled by a name plus a category word; the table stores the category words. 2 respondents with no condition and 6 with no outcome dropped; N 2,360 vs 2,347 in the article.

These notes describe the source data, which the IRW reproduces as released. All notes are listed on the Data Notes page.

Design

Topic	candidate choice
A profile represents	person
Country	IN
Language shown	unknown
Language of stored levels	en
Task order	recorded in the deposit
Profile position	recorded in the deposit

Outcomes:

rating_authority	Now imagine there are some important decisions to be made in the village. As you probably know, sometimes other people – influential people in the village, village elders, other council members, or family members – step in and take village decisions in the place of the sarpanch or are generally more active than the sarpanch. Sometimes however it is the case that the sarpanch is the most influential actor. In this village, do you think that a president like [Bharti/Rohit] [Kamble/Marathe] would be the one who is the most active in taking village decisions, or do you think it would be someone else? [rating, 0 (Someone else) to 1 (Sarpanch)]
rating_backlash	Now imagine that [Bharti/Rohit] [Kamble/Marathe] becomes quite powerful as a sarpanch. She makes her own decisions about what is best for the village, which are not always in line with what the influential villagers want, and she refuses to resign from her position as sarpanch. Do you think that [Bharti/Rohit] [Kamble/Marathe] would likely face backlash from influential people in the village? For example, threats, bullying, or violence? [rating, 0 (No, it is not likely) to 1 (Yes, it is likely)]
rating_resign	As you probably know, in almost every village, there are generally some influential people when it comes to village affairs, for example a chawdi group, or bhauki leaders. Imagine that influential people in this village ask [Bharti/Rohit] [Kamble/Marathe] to resign from their post as sarpanch. Do you think that a president like [Bharti/Rohit] [Kamble/Marathe] would accept this request and resign, or would [she/he] resist the request? [rating, 0 (Resist) to 1 (Resign)]

Columns

attr_casteattr_gendercov_agecov_castecov_educationcov_gendercov_knowledge_local_politicscov_location_typecov_religioncov_voted_2019cov_women_vote_normidprofilerating_authorityrating_backlashrating_resigntask

The layout (one row per respondent, task and profile; choice/rating outcomes; attr_ columns holding each attribute level as displayed) is defined in the IRW conjoint standard. What the outcomes asked is under Design above.

Get the data

Download CSVno account needed Browse on Redivisexplore and query Croissant metadataHugging Face, Kaggle, OpenML

Or load it directly in R or Python (both need a free Redivis account; the first call opens a browser to sign in):

# R
install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("itemresponsewarehouse/Rpkg")
library(irw)
df <- irw_fetch("heinze_2025_sarpanch_vignette", source = "conj")

# Python
pip install irw

import irw
df = irw.fetch("heinze_2025_sarpanch_vignette", source="conj")

How to cite

@article{HEINZE_2025, title={Democratic Deepening or Elite Persistence? How Local Elites Adapt to Electoral Reform in Rural India}, volume={120}, ISSN={1537-5943}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003055425101068}, DOI={10.1017/s0003055425101068}, number={3}, journal={American Political Science Review}, publisher={Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, author={HEINZE, ALYSSA R.}, year={2025}, month=Oct, pages={876–895} }

Respondents	2,360
Rows (one per respondent, task and profile)	2,360
Tasks per respondent (most)	1
Profiles per task	1
Attributes	2

IRW version	v584
Redivis dataset	irw_conjoint v4.2
Redivis dataset DOI	10.57761/qkye-q530
Manifest pin for this IRW version	v4.2
Metadata source	irw_meta v44.0

heinze_2025_sarpanch_vignette