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6 - Requesting Benefits

from Part II - Relational Clientelism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Simeon Nichter
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

Chapter 6 examines requesting benefits, a key mechanism by which citizens help to sustain relational clientelism. Even in rural Northeast Brazil, an area not traditionally known for high levels of voter autonomy, the majority of citizens who receive handouts had asked politicians for help. Citizens’ demands are frequently motivated by vulnerability: most requests involve life necessities, such as water and medicine, and they spike during adverse shocks. Evidence is consistent with both relational clientelism and the logic of screening elaborated in Chapter 3. Analyses suggest that during both election and non-election years, requesters disproportionately receive help, with declared supporters as more likely recipients. Interviews provide insight about the screening role of requests in ongoing clientelist relationships, and regressions show that survey respondents often espouse negative perceptions of politicians who deny their requests, and refuse to vote for them. By eliciting information about politicians’ trustworthiness, requesting benefits enables citizens to mitigate an important threat to the survival of relational clientelism.

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Chapter
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Votes for Survival
Relational Clientelism in Latin America
, pp. 149 - 176
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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  • Requesting Benefits
  • Simeon Nichter, University of California, San Diego
  • Book: Votes for Survival
  • Online publication: 06 December 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316998014.006
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  • Requesting Benefits
  • Simeon Nichter, University of California, San Diego
  • Book: Votes for Survival
  • Online publication: 06 December 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316998014.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Requesting Benefits
  • Simeon Nichter, University of California, San Diego
  • Book: Votes for Survival
  • Online publication: 06 December 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316998014.006
Available formats
×