Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:44:21.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Does Participation Reinforce Patronage? Policy Preferences, Turnout and Class in Urban Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2016

Abstract

Political competition is expected to become less particularistic as prosperity rises and a middle class emerges. But particularistic linkages persist despite rising wealth in urban Ghana. Politicians are unable to commit to campaign promises with voters who want large-scale public policies, many of whom are in the middle class. This creates incentives to avoid mobilizing many of these voters and to ignore their preferences. As a result, voters who want major public policies rather than patronage differentially refrain from participation, allowing poorer voters to dominate the electorate and party organizations. This may only reinforce politicians’ disincentives to make policy appeals, and stall the emergence of more policy-based electoral competition even as the middle class grows.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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

*

Department of Political Science, University of Michigan (email: [email protected]). Adam Auerbach, Lorena Barberia, Robert Bates, Julie Faller, Shelby Grossman, Mai Hassan, Evelyne Huber, Nahomi Ichino, Steven Levitsky, Jeffrey Paller, Robert Schub, Ariel White, three anonymous reviewers, and participants at the 2015 MPSA and APSA meetings provided helpful comments. Thanks to Dr. Franklin Oduro, Adu Kakra Duayeden and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development for making the fieldwork possible, to Jonathan Phillips, and to Dr. Philomena Nyarko and the Ghana Statistical Service. Primary research assistance was provided by Alhassan Ibn Abdallah, Francis Addo, Mahmuda Ainoo and Maame Gyesiwa Sam. Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship DGE 1144152, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard. Online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123416000351. Replication materials will be available from April 2017 in order to allow for completion of a companion project at http://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BJPolS.

References

Abrams, Samuel, Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2010. Informal Social Networks and Rational Voting. British Journal of Political Science 41 (4):229257.Google Scholar
Ansolabehere, Stephen, and Hersh, Eitan. 2012. Validation: What Big Data Reveal About Survey Misreporting and the Real Electorate. Political Analysis 20 (4):437549.Google Scholar
Auerbach, Adam M. 2015. India’s Urban Constituencies Revisited. Contemporary South Asia 23 (2):136150.Google Scholar
Bleck, Jaimie, and van de Walle, Nicolas. 2012. Valence Issues in African Elections: Navigating Uncertainty and the Weight of the Past. Comparative Political Studies 46 (11):13941421.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael. 2008. Vote Buying and Violence in Nigerian Election Campaigns. Electoral Studies 27:621632.Google Scholar
Brierley, Sarah, and Kramon, Eric. 2015. Political Party Campaign Strategies and Incumbency Advantages in an African Election, Working Paper, University of California-Los Angeles and George Washington University.Google Scholar
Briggs, Ryan C. 2012. Electrifying the Base? Aid and Incumbent Advantage in Ghana. Journal of Modern African Studies 50 (4):603624.Google Scholar
Brusco, Valeria, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Stokes, Susan C.. 2004. Vote Buying in Argentina. Latin American Research Review 39:6688.Google Scholar
Calvo, Ernesto, and Murillo, M. Victoria. 2004. Who Delivers? Partisan Clients in the Argentine Electoral Market. American Journal of Political Science 48:742757.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 2004. Politics of the Governed: Popular Politics in Most of the World. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cheeseman, Nic. 2015. ‘No Bourgeoisie, No Democracy?’ The Political Attitudes of the Kenyan Middle Class. Journal of International Development 27:647664.Google Scholar
Cho, Wendy K. Tam, and Rudolph, Thomas J.. 2008. Emanating Political Participation: Untangling the Spatial Structure Behind Participation. British Journal of Political Science 38:273289.Google Scholar
Chubb, Judith. 1982. Patronage, Power, and Poverty in Southern Italy: A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Croke, Kevin, Grossman, Guy, Larreguy, Horacio A., and Marshall, John. 2015. The Effect of Education on Political Participation in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from Zimbabwe. American Political Science Review (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Cruz, Cesi, and Keefer, Philip. 2015. Political Parties, Clientelism, and Bureaucratic Reform. Comparative Political Studies 48 (14):19421973.Google Scholar
Dixit, Avinash, and Londregan, John. 1996. The Determinants of Success of Special Interests in Redistributive Politics. Journal of Politics 58:11321155.Google Scholar
Elischer, Sebastian. 2013. Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Erie, Steven P. 1988. Rainbow’s End: Irish Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Faller, Julie. 2013. The Importance of Timing: Elections, Partisan Targeting and the Ghana Education Trust Fund. Working paper. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Fedderson, Timothy J. 2004. Rational Choice Theory and the Paradox of Not Voting. Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (1):99112.Google Scholar
Franck, Raphael, and Rainer, Ilia. 2012. Does the Leader’s Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education, and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa. American Political Science Review 106 (2):294325.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Hill, Jennifer. 2007. Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., and Green, Donald P.. 2000. The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment. American Political Science Review 94 (3):653663.Google Scholar
Ghana Statistical Service. 2014. Ghana Living Standards Survey: Round 6 Main Report. Accra: Ghana Statistical Service.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gonzalez-Ocantos, Ezequiel, de Jonge, Chad Kiewiet, Melendez, Carlos, Osorio, Javier, and Nickerson, David W.. 2012. Vote Buying and Social Desirability Bias: Experiment Evidence from Nicaragua. American Journal of Political Science 56 (1):202217.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, Jessica, Grossman, Guy, and Robinson, Amanda Lea. 2015. Do Men and Women Have Different Policy Preferences in Africa? Determinants and Implications of Gender Gaps in Policy Prioritization. British Journal of Political Science (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Gugler, Josef, and Flanagan, William G.. 1978. Urbanization and Social Change in West Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hagopian, Frances, Gervasoni, Carlos, and Moraes, Juan Andres. 2009. From Patronage to Program: The Emergence of Party-Oriented Legislators in Brazil. Comparative Political Studies 42:360391.Google Scholar
Hanmer, Michael J., and Kalkan, Kerem Ozan. 2013. Behind the Curve: Clarifying the Best Approach to Calculating Predicted Probabilities and Marginal Effects from Limited Dependent Variable Models. American Journal of Political Science 57 (1):263277.Google Scholar
Harding, Robin. 2015. Attribution and Accountability: Voting for Roads in Ghana. World Politics 67 (4):656689.Google Scholar
Harriss, John. 2006. Middle-Class Activism and the Politics of the Informal Working Class. Critical Asian Studies 38 (4):445465.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen. 2011. Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science 14 (1):289310.Google Scholar
Ichino, Nahomi, and Nathan, Noah L.. 2012. Primaries on Demand? Intra-Party Politics and Nominations in Ghana. British Journal of Political Science 42 (4):769791.Google Scholar
Ichino, Nahomi, and Nathan, Noah L.. 2013. Crossing the Line: Local Ethnic Geography and Voting in Ghana. American Political Science Review 107 (2):344361.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, Peter Sandholt, and Justesen, Mogens K.. 2014. Poverty and Vote Buying: Survey-Based Evidence from Africa. Electoral Studies 33:220232.Google Scholar
Karp, Jeffrey A., and Brockington, David. 2005. Social Desirability Bias and Response Validity: A Comparative Analysis of Overreporting Voter Turnout in Five Countries. Journal of Politics 67 (3):825840.Google Scholar
Kasara, Kimuli, and Suryanarayan, Pavithra. 2015. When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality across the World. American Journal of Political Science 59 (3):613627.Google Scholar
Keefer, Philip, and Vlaicu, Razvan. 2007. Democracy, Credibility, and Clientelism. Journal of Economics, Law, and Organization 24 (2):371406.Google Scholar
Kessides, Christine. 2006. The Urban Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction. Washington, DC: The Cities Alliance/World Bank.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert. 2000. Linkages Between Citizens and Politicians in Democratic Polities. Comparative Political Studies 33 (3):845879.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert. 2007. The Demise of Clientelism in Affluent Capitalist Democracies. In Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, edited by Herbert Kitschelt and Steven I. Wilkinson, 298321. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Kselman, Daniel M.. 2013. Economic Development, Democratic Experience, and Political Parties’ Linkage Strategies. Comparative Political Studies 46 (11):14531484.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Wilkinson, Steven I.. 2007. Citizen-Politician Linkages: An Introduction. In Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, edited by Herbert Kitschelt and Steven I. Wilkinson, 149. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuo, Joanna Didi. 2014. Business and the Decline of Clientelism in the United States, 1870–1920. Working paper. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven. 2003. Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lieberman, Evan, and McClendon, Gwyneth. 2013. The Ethnicity-Policy Preferences Link in Sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative Political Studies 46 (5):574602.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan I. 2010. What Accountability Pressures Do MPs in Africa Face and How Do They Respond? Evidence from Ghana. Journal of Modern African Studies 48 (1):117142.Google Scholar
Lofchie, Michael. 2015. The Political Economy of the African Middle Class. In The Emerging Middle Class in Africa, edited by Mthuli Ncube and Charles Lufumba, 3459. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Luna, Juan Pablo. 2014. Segmented Representation: Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mattes, Robert. 2015. South Africa’s Emerging Black Middle Class: A Harbinger of Political Change? Journal of International Development 27:665692.Google Scholar
Nathan, Noah. 2016. Local Ethnic Geography, Expectations of Favoritism, and Voting in Urban Ghana. Comparative Political Studies (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Nichter, Simeon. 2008. Vote Buying or Turnout Buying? Machine Politics and the Secret Ballot. American Political Science Review 102:1931.Google Scholar
Paller, Jeffrey W. 2014. Informal Institutions and Personal Rule in Urban Ghana. African Studies Review 57 (3):123142.Google Scholar
Persson, Anna, Rothstein, Bo, and Teorell, Jan. 2012. Why Anticorruption Reforms Fail – Systemic Corruption as a Collective Action Problem. Governance 26 (3):449471.Google Scholar
Reinikka, Ritva, and Svensson, Jakob. 2004. Local Capture: Evidence from a Central Government Transfer Program in Uganda. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (2):679705.Google Scholar
Resnick, Danielle. 2014. Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Resnick, Danielle. 2015a. The Middle Class and Democratic Consolidation in Zambia. Journal of International Development 27:693715.Google Scholar
Resnick, Danielle. 2015b. The Political Economy of Africa’s Emerging Middle Class: Retrospect and Prospects. Journal of International Development 27:573587.Google Scholar
Riedl, Rachel Beatty. 2014. Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Hansen, John Mark. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Scheiner, Ethan. 2007. Clientelism in Japan: The Importance and Limits of Institutional Explanations. In Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, edited by Herbert Kitschelt and Steven I. Wilkinson, 276297. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin. 1994. Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Southall, Roger. 2004. Political Change and the Black Middle Class in Democratic South Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies 38 (3):521542.Google Scholar
Southall, Roger. 2014. The Black Middle Class and Democracy in South Africa. Journal of Modern African Studies 52 (4):647670.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C., Dunning, Thad, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Brusco, Valeria. 2013. Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thurlow, James, Resnick, Danielle, and Ubogu, Dumebi. 2015. Matching Concepts with Measurement: Who Belongs to Africa’s Middle Class? Journal of International Development 27:588608.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicolas. 2001. African Economies and the Politics of the Permanent Crisis, 19791999 . New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay, and Brady, Henry. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Weghorst, Keith R., and Lindberg, Staffan I.. 2013. What Drives the Swing Voter in Africa? American Journal of Political Science 57 (3):717734.Google Scholar
Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca. 2012. What Wins Votes: Why Some Politicians Opt Out of Clientelism. American Journal of Political Science 56 (3):568583.Google Scholar
Whitfield, Lindsay. 2011. Growth Without Economic Transformation: Economic Impacts of Ghana’s Political Settlement. Working paper No. 2011. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Nathan supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Nathan supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 179.6 KB