Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T13:53:30.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Network Structures and the Politics of Public Goods Provision: Evidence from the Philippines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2020

CESI CRUZ Open the ORCID record for CESI CRUZ [Opens in a new window] ,
JULIEN LABONNE Open the ORCID record for JULIEN LABONNE [Opens in a new window]  and
PABLO QUERUBÍN Open the ORCID record for PABLO QUERUBÍN [Opens in a new window]
CESI CRUZ*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
JULIEN LABONNE*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
PABLO QUERUBÍN*
Affiliation:
New York University
*
*Cesi Cruz, Assistant Professor, Vancouver School of Economics and Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, [email protected].
†Julien Labonne, Associate Professor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, [email protected].
‡Pablo Querubín, Associate Professor, Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We study the relationship between social structure and political incentives for public goods provision. We argue that when politicians—rather than communities—are responsible for the provision of public goods, social fractionalization may decrease the risk of elite capture and lead to increased public goods provision and electoral competition. We test this using large-scale data on family networks from over 20 million individuals in 15,000 villages of the Philippines. We take advantage of naming conventions to assess intermarriage links between families and use community detection algorithms to identify the relevant clans in those villages. We show that there is more public goods provision and political competition in villages with more fragmented social networks, a result that is robust to controlling for a large number of village characteristics and to alternative estimation techniques.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 114 , Issue 2 , May 2020 , pp. 486 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2020 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

A previous version of this paper circulated under the title Village Social Network Structures and Electoral Competition. We thank Klaus Desmet, Nick Eubank, James Fowler, Yana Gorokhovskaia, Saad Gulzar, Steph Haggard, Alex Hughes, Matias Iaryczower, Franziska Keller, Stuti Khemani, Alexander Kustov, Kai Ostwald, Anja Prummer, Laura Schechter, Sarah Shair-Rosenfeld, Jake Shapiro, and Francesco Trebbi for helpful suggestions. We are also grateful to seminar and workshop participants at ASOG, Barcelona Summer Forum, Barcelona’s Workshop on the Political Economy of Development and Conflict, Emory University, LSE-NYU Conference, Moscow Political Economy and Development Workshop, University of Oslo, Princeton Political Economy Workshop, Ryerson University, University of Virginia, University of British Columbia, University of California, San Diego, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Philippines School of Economics, Warwick, University of Wisconsin AAE, and World Bank ABCDE for feedback. All remaining errors are ours. Replication files are available at the American Political Science Review Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/B9U5BH.

References

REFERENCES

Abinales, Patricio N., and Amoroso, Donna J.. 2017. State and Society in the Philippines. New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Reed, Tristan, and Robinson, James. 2014. “Chiefs: Economic Development and Elite Control of Civil Society in Sierra Leone.” Journal of Political Economy 122 (2): 319–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Devleeschauwer, Arnaud, Easterly, William, Kurlat, Sergio, and Wacziarg, Romain. 2003. “Fractionalization.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (2): 155–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Baqir, Reza, and Easterly, William. 1999. “Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114 (4): 1243–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amorim-Neto, Octavio, and Cox, Gary W.. 1997. “Electoral Institutions, Cleavage Structures, and the Number of Parties.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (1): 149–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Michael L. 2008. “Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 103 (484): 1481–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aquino, Clemen C. 2004. “Mula sa Kinaroroonan: Kapwa, Kapatiran and Bayan in Philippine Social Science.” Asian Journal of Social Science 32 (1): 105–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashraf, Nava, Bau, Natalie, Nunn, Nathan, and Voena, Alessandra. 2016. “Bride Price and Female Education.” Working Paper No. 22417, National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w22417.Google Scholar
Azfar, Omar, Gurgur, Tugrul, Kahkonen, Satu, Lanyi, Anthony, and Meagher, Patrick. 2000. “Decentralization and Governance: An Empirical Investigation of Public Service Delivery in the Philippines.” Working Paper, IRIS Center, University of Maryland. http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/decentralization/draftphilippinespaper121800.doc.Google Scholar
Bardhan, Pranab. 2002. “Decentralization and Governance in Development.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 16 (4): 185–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Burgess, Robin. 2002. “The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117 (4): 1415–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvo, Ernesto, and Murillo, Maria Victoria. 2013. “When Parties Meet Voters: Assessing Political Linkages Through Partisan Networks and Distributive Expectations in Argentina and Chile.” Comparative Political Studies 46 (7): 851–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capuno, Joseph. 2012. “The PIPER Forum on 20 Years of Fiscal Decentralization: A Synthesis.” Philippine Review of Economics 49 (1): 191–202.Google Scholar
Chandrasekhar, Arun, and Lewis, Randall. 2016. “Econometrics of Sampled Networks.” Working Paper. https://web.stanford.edu/∼arungc/CL.pdf.Google Scholar
Clemente, Jose Antonio, Belleza, Delia, Yu, Angela, Catibog, Effie Vinia, Solis, Goyena, and Laguerta, Jason. 2008. “Revisiting the Kapwa Theory: Applying Alternative Methodologies and Gaining New Insights.” Philippine Journal of Psychology 41: 1–32.Google Scholar
Corpuz, Onofre D. 1965. The Philippines. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Covar, Prospero. 1998. Larangan: Seminal Essays on Philippine Culture. Manila: National Commission for Culture and the Arts.Google Scholar
Crost, Benjamin, and Kambhampati, Uma S.. 2010. “Political Market Characteristics and the Provision of Educational Infrastructure in North India.” World Development 38 (2): 195–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Cesi. 2019. “Social Networks and the Targeting of Vote Buying.” Comparative Political Studies 52 (3): 382–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Cesi, Labonne, Julien, and Querubín, Pablo. 2017. “Politician Family Networks and Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from the Philippines.” The American Economic Review 107 (10): 3006–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1973. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Ortuño-Ortín, Ignacio, and Weber, Shlomo. 2017. “Peripheral Diversity: Transfers versus Public Goods.” Social Choice and Welfare 49 (3): 787–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterly, William, and Levine, Ross. 1997. “Africa’s Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (4): 1203–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enriquez, Virgilio G.. 1986. “Kapwa: A Core Concept in Filipino Social Psychology.” In Philippine World View, ed. Enriquez, Virgilio G.. Singapore: Institute of South-East Asian Studies, 6–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eubank, Nicholas, Grossman, Guy, Platas, Melina, and Rodden, Jonathan. 2017. Viral Voting: Social Networks and Political Participation. Working Paper. http://www.nickeubank.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SocialNetworksAndPoliticalParticipation.pdf.Google Scholar
Fafchamps, Marcel, and Labonne, Julien. 2017. “Do Politicians’ Relatives Get Better Jobs? Evidence from Municipal Elections in the Philippines.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 33 (2): 268–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D. 2003. “Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (2): 195–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fegan, Brian. 2009. “Entrepreneurs in Votes and Violence: Three Generations of a Peasant Political Family.” In An Anarchy of Families: State & Family in the Philippines, ed. McCoy, Alfred. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 33–108.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Luisa. 2012. “Design and Implementation Features of the National Household Targeting System in the Philippines.” World Bank - Philippines Social Protection Note No. 5.Google Scholar
Gao, Eleanor. 2016. “Tribal Mobilization, Fragmented Groups, and Public Goods Provision in Jordan.” Comparative Political Studies 49 (10): 1372–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girvan, Michelle, and Newman, Mark. 2002. “Community Structure in Social and Biological Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 (12): 7821–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golosov, Grigorii V. 2010. “The Effective Number of Parties: A New Approach.” Party Politics 16: 171–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haim, Dotan. 2018. “Civilian Social Networks and Credible Counterinsurgency.” Working Paper. http://dotanhaim.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Haim_CivilianNetworks.pdf.Google Scholar
Hollnsteiner, Mary. 1963. The Dynamics of Power in a Philippine Municipality. Quezon City: University of the Philippines.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Sprague, John. 1991. “Discussant Effects on Vote Choice: Intimacy, Structure, and Interdependence.” The Journal of Politics 53 (1): 122–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, Beck, Paul Allen, Dalton, Russell J., and Levine, Jeffrey. 1995. “Political Environments, Cohesive Social Groups, and the Communication of Public Opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (4): 1025–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchcroft, Paul. 2012. “Re-Slicing the Pie of Patronage: The Politics of Internal Revenue Allotment in the Philippines, 1991–2010.” Philippine Review of Economics 49 (1): 109–34.Google Scholar
Hutchcroft, Paul, and Rocamora, Joel. 2003. “Strong Demands and Weak Institutions: The Origins and Evolution of the Democratic Deficit in the Philippines.” Journal of East Asian Studies 3 (2): 259–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Matthew O. 2010. Social and Economic Networks. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Elihu, and Lazarsfeld, Paul F.. 1955. Personal Influence, the Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Khemani, Stuti. 2015. “Buying Votes versus Supplying Public Services: Political Incentives to Under-Invest in Pro-Poor Policies.” Journal of Development Economics 117: 84–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Wilkinson, Steven. 2007. Patrons, Clients, and Policies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kustov, Alexander, and Pardelli, Giuliana. 2018. “Ethnoracial Homogeneity and Public Outcomes: The (Non)effects of Diversity.” American Political Science Review 112 (4): 1096–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laakso, Markku, and Taagepera, Rein. 1979. “Effective Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe.” Comparative Political Studies 12 (1): 3–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lande, Carl H. 1964. Leaders, Factions, and Parties: The Structure of Philippine Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Larson, Jennifer M., and Lewis, Janet I.. 2017. “Ethnic Networks.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (2): 350–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lizzeri, Alessandro, and Persico, Nicola. 2004. “Why Did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Scope of Government, with an Application to Britain’s ‘Age of Reform’.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (2): 707–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llanto, Gilberto M. 2012. “The Assignment of Functions and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in the Philippines 20 Years after Decentralization.” Philippine Review of Economics 49 (1): 37–80.Google Scholar
Lublin, David. 2017. “Electoral Systems, Ethnic Heterogeneity and Party System Fragmentation.” British Journal of Political Science 47 (2): 373–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez-Bravo, Monica, Padro i Miquel, Gerard, Qian, Nancy, and Yao, Yang. 2012. “Social Fragmentation, Public Goods and Elections: Evidence from China.” Working Paper 18633, National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w18633.Google Scholar
McCoy, Alfred W. 2009. An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Mendoza, Ronald U., Beja, Edsel L. Jr., Venida, Victor S., and Yap, David B.. 2016. “Political Dynasties and Poverty: Measurement and Evidence of Linkages in the Philippines.” Oxford Development Studies 44 (2): 189–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendoza, Ronald U., Cruz, Jan, and Yap, David B.. 2014. Political Party Switching: It’s More Fun in the Philippines. Working Paper 14-019, Asian Institute of Management (AIM). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2492913.Google Scholar
Miguel, Edward, and Gugerty, Mary Kay. 2005. “Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya.” Journal of Public Economics 89 (11): 2325–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miralao, Virginia A. 1997. “The Family, Traditional Values and the Sodocultural Transformation of Philippine Society.” Philippine Sociological Review 45 (1/4): 189–215.Google Scholar
Moscona, Jacob, Nunn, Nathan, and Robinson, James A.. 2017. “Keeping It in the Family: Lineage Organization and the Scope of Trust in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The American Economic Review 107 (5): 565–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munshi, Kaivan, and Rosenzweig, Mark. 2018. “Ethnic Diversity and the Under-Supply of Public Goods.” Working Paper. https://www.histecon.magd.cam.ac.uk/km/panchayat79.pdf.Google Scholar
Nichter, Simeon. 2008. “Vote Buying or Turnout Buying? Machine Politics and the Secret Ballot.” American Political Science Review 102 (1): 19–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostwald, Kai, Tajima, Yuhki, and Samphantharak, Krislert. 2016. “Indonesia’s Decentralization Experiment: Motivations, Successes, and Unintended Consequences.” Journal of Southeast Asian Economies 33 (2): 139–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, John F., and McLean, Paul D.. 2006. “Organizational Invention and Elite Transformation: The Birth of the Partnership Systems in Renaissance Florence.” American Journal of Sociology 111 (5): 1463–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, Pascal, and Latapy, Matthieu. 2005. “Computing Communities in Large Networks Using Random Walks.” In Computer and Information Sciences - ISCIS 2005, eds. Yolum, Pinar, Güngör, Tunga, Gürgen, Fikret, and Özturan, Can. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 284–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potter, Joshua D. 2014. “Demographic Diversity and District-Level Party Systems.” Comparative Political Studies 47 (13): 1801–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, Vijayendra, and Walton, Michael. 2004. Culture and Public Action: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on Development Policy. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reyes, Jeremiah. 2015. “Loób and Kapwa: An Introduction to a Filipino Virtue Ethics.” Asian Philosophy 25 (2): 148–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Steven. 2004. “Philippine Politics and the Rule of Law.” Journal of Democracy 15 (4): 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenzweig, Steven C. 2015. “Does Electoral Competition Affect Public Goods Provision in Dominant-Party Regimes? Evidence from Tanzania.” Electoral Studies 39: 72–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Michael. 2018. Rebel Territorial Control and Civilian Collective Action in Civil War. Evidence from the Philippines. Working Paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3290760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidel, John T. 1999. Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soifer, Hillel David. 2016. “Regionalism, Ethnic Diversity, and Variation in Public Good Provision by National States.” Comparative Political Studies 49 (10): 1341–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajima, Yuhki, Samphantharak, Krislert, and Ostwald, Kai. 2018. “Ethnic Segregation and Public Goods: Evidence from Indonesia.” American Political Science Review 112 (3): 637–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timberman, David G. 1991. A Changeless Land: Continuity and Change in Philippine Politics. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, Emmanuel. 1985. The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Troland, Erin. 2016. Do Fiscal Transfers Increase Local Revenue Collection? Evidence from the Philippines. Working Paper. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3242240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2016. “Is Diversity Detrimental? Ethnic Fractionalization, Public Goods Provision, and the Historical Legacies of Stateness.” Comparative Political Studies 49 (11): 1407–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Yiqing, and Yao, Yang. 2015. “Informal Institutions, Collective Action, and Public Investment in Rural China.” American Political Science Review 109 (2): 371–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Cruz et al. Supplementary Materials

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OARGFC
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Cruz et al. Supplementary Materials

Cruz et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Cruz et al. Supplementary Materials(PDF)
PDF 167.3 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.