Democratic Policy Decisions with Decentralized Promises Contingent on Vote Outcome

We study pre-vote interactions in a committee that enacts a welfare-improving reform through voting in the presence of heterogeneous utilities. Committee members use decentralized irrevocable promises of non-negative transfers contingent on the vote outcome to influence the voting behaviour of other committee members. Equilibrium transfers require that no coalition can deviate in a self-enforcing manner that benefits all its members ({\it Strong Nash}) and minimize total transfers. We show that equilibria exist, are indeterminate, efficient, and involve transfers from high- to low-utility members. Equilibrium transfers prevent reform opponents from persuading less enthusiastic reform supporters to vote against the reform. Transfer recipients can be reform supporters.