IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v58y2014i2p415-432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics during Elections

Author

Listed:
  • Jordan Gans‐Morse
  • Sebastián Mazzuca
  • Simeon Nichter

Abstract

Although many studies of clientelism focus exclusively on vote buying, political machines often employ diverse portfolios of strategies. We provide a theoretical framework and formal model to explain how and why machines mix four clientelist strategies during elections: vote buying, turnout buying, abstention buying, and double persuasion. Machines tailor their portfolios to the political preferences and voting costs of the electorate. They also adapt their mix to at least five contextual factors: compulsory voting, ballot secrecy, political salience, machine support, and political polarization. Our analysis yields numerous insights, such as why the introduction of compulsory voting may increase vote buying, and why enhanced ballot secrecy may increase turnout buying and abstention buying. Evidence from various countries is consistent with our predictions and suggests the need for empirical studies to pay closer attention to the ways in which machines combine clientelist strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jordan Gans‐Morse & Sebastián Mazzuca & Simeon Nichter, 2014. "Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics during Elections," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(2), pages 415-432, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:415-432
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12058
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anand Murugesan & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2023. "The Puzzling Practice of Paying “Cash for Votes”," CESifo Working Paper Series 10504, CESifo.
    2. Paniagua, Victoria, 2022. "When clients vote for brokers: How elections improve public goods provision in urban slums," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Jenny Guardado & Leonard Wantchekon, 2021. "Do gifts buy votes?: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-129, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos A. Molina & James A. Robinson, 2022. "The Weak State Trap," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 293-331, April.
    5. León, Gianmarco, 2017. "Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 56-71.
    6. Callen, Michael & Gulzar, Saad & Hasanain, Ali & Khan, Muhammad Yasir & Rezaee, Arman, 2023. "The political economy of public sector absence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    7. Francesc Amat & Pablo Beramendi & Miriam Hortas-Rico & Vicente Rios, 2020. "How inequality shapes political participation: The role of spatial patterns of political competition," Working Papers. Collection B: Regional and sectoral economics 2002, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    8. Casas, Agustin, 2020. "The electoral benefits of unemployment, clientelism and distributive politics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    9. Nikolina Obradović & Goran Patrick Filic, 2019. "Inequality And Welfare State Clientelism In Bosnia And Herzegovina," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 64(223), pages 83-104, October –.
    10. Conroy-Krutz, Jeffrey, 2018. "Media exposure and political participation in a transitional African context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 224-242.
    11. Troncone, Massimo, 2024. "Poverty, Competition, and Mass Patronage: Evidence from Southern Italy," OSF Preprints rgz9t, Center for Open Science.
    12. Soumyanetra Munshi, 2022. "Clientelism or public goods: dilemma in a ‘divided democracy’," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 483-506, December.
    13. Garay, Candelaria & Palmer-Rubin, Brian & Poertner, Mathias, 2020. "Organizational and partisan brokerage of social benefits: Social policy linkages in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    14. Miquel Pellicer & Eva Wegner & Lindsay J. Benstead & Ellen Lust, 2021. "Poor people’s beliefs and the dynamics of clientelism," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 33(3), pages 300-332, July.
    15. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina & Juan Felipe Riaño, 2018. "I Sell My Vote, and So What? Incidence, Social Bias, and Correlates of Clientelism in Colombia," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2018), pages 181-218, November.
    16. Gallego, Jorge & Guardado, Jenny & Wantchekon, Leonard, 2023. "Do gifts buy votes? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    17. Michael Rochlitz & Evgeniya Mitrokhina & Irina Nizovkina, 2020. "Bureaucratic Discrimination in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: Experimental Evidence from Russia," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2010, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    18. Vladimir Shchukin & Cemal Eren Arbatli, 2022. "Clientelism and development: Vote-buying meets patronage," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 34(1), pages 3-34, January.
    19. Prummer, Anja, 2020. "Micro-targeting and polarization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    20. Soumyanetra Munshi, 2021. "Criminality and clientelism: a game-theoretic exploration," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 375-403, December.
    21. Kikuta,Kyosuke, 2022. "The drowning-out effect: voter turnout, uncertainty, and protests," IDE Discussion Papers 867, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    22. Mark D. Ramirez, 2021. "Understanding public blame attributions when private contractors are responsible for civilian casualties," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 21-40, March.
    23. Mahvish Shami, 2024. "What Do Brokers Provide for Urban Slums?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(5), pages 2252-2269, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:415-432. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.