Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:21:36.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Engineering popular support for long-ruling parties: the role of clientelism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2019

Qingjie Zeng
Qingjie Zeng*
Affiliation:
School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, 702 Wenke Building, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, PR China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In electorally contested regimes, the incumbent party often uses clientelist exchanges to stay in power long after its underlying electoral support has evaporated. Existing studies failed to examine how the role of clientelism changes with the increasing tenure of the incumbent party. Combining data from the Afrobarometer project and information about partisan turnover, this article shows that the longer a party has remained in power, the more clientelist exchanges in the form of club goods and patronage will serve to bolster popular support for the ruling party. This is mainly because lengthy party duration facilitates the politicization of bureaucracy and other state resources essential for clientelist exchanges. Understanding the evolving role of clientelism under electoral contestation has profound implications for the study of phenomena such as dominant-party rule and democratic erosion.

Keywords

Clientelismdominant partyincumbency advantageparty durationvoter support
Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 75 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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.)

References

Bermeo, N (2016) On democratic backsliding. Journal of Democracy 27, 5–19.Google Scholar
Bratton, M (2008) Vote buying and violence in Nigerian election campaigns. Electoral Studies 27, 621–632.Google Scholar
Bratton, M, Bhavnani, R and Tse-Hsin, C (2012) Voting intentions in Africa: ethnic, economic or partisan? Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 50, 27–52.Google Scholar
Brun, DA (2007) The Quality of Democracy in Small South American Countries: The Case of Paraguay. Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Working Paper No. 343.Google Scholar
Brusco, V, Nazareno, M and Stokes, CS (2004) Vote buying in Argentina. Latin American Research Review 39, 66–88.Google Scholar
Croke, K (2017) Tools of single party hegemony in Tanzania: evidence from surveys and survey experiments. Democratization 24, 189–208.Google Scholar
Diaz-Cayeros, A, Magaloni, B and Weingast, B (2003) Democratization and the Economy in Mexico: Equilibrium (PRI) Hegemony and its Demise. Stanford University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Dionne, KY, Inman, KL and Montinola, GR (2014) Another Resource Curse? The Impact of Remittances on Political Participation. Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 145.Google Scholar
Finan, F and Schechter, LA (2012) Vote-buying and reciprocity. Econometrica 80, 863–881.Google Scholar
Fox, J (1994) The difficult transition from clientelism to citizenship: lessons from Mexico. World Politics 46, 151–184.Google Scholar
Greene, KF (2007) Why Dominant Parties Lose: Mexico's Democratization in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Griffith, IL (1991) The military and the politics of change in Guyana. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 33, 141–173.Google Scholar
Grzymala-Busse, A (2008) Beyond clientelism: incumbent state capture and state formation. Comparative Political Studies 41, 638–673.Google Scholar
Guardado, J and WantchÉkon, L (2017) Do Electoral Handouts Affect Voting Behavior? Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 171.Google Scholar
Harding, R (2015) Attribution and accountability: voting for roads in Ghana. World Politics 67, 656–689.Google Scholar
Hicken, A (2011) Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science 14, 289–310.Google Scholar
Higashijima, M and Houle, C (2018) Ethnic inequality and the strength of ethnic identities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political Behavior 40, 909–932.Google Scholar
Hintzen, PC and Premdas, RR (1982) Guyana: coercion and control in political change. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 24, 337–354.Google Scholar
Keefer, P (2007) Clientelism, credibility, and the policy choices of young democracies. American Journal of Political Science 51, 804–821.Google Scholar
Key, VO (1964) Parties, Politics and Pressure Groups. New York: Crowell.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H (2000) Linkages between citizens and politicians in democratic polities. Comparative Political Studies 33, 845–879.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H and Wilkinson, SI (eds) (2007) Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kramon, E (2016) Electoral handouts as information: explaining unmonitored vote buying. World Politics 68, 454–498.Google Scholar
Laitin, DD (1986) Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Change among the Yoruba. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lambert, P and Nickson, A (2016) The Transition to Democracy in Paraguay. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Lawson, C and Greene, KF (2014) Making clientelism work: how norms of reciprocity increase voter compliance. Comparative Politics 47, 61–85.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, R (1972) Political clientelism and ethnicity in tropical Africa: competing solidarities in nation-building. American Political Science Review 66, 68–90.Google Scholar
Levitsky, S (2007) From populism to clientelism? The transformation of labor-based party linkages in Latin America. In Kitschelt, H and Wilkinson, S (eds), Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levitsky, S and Way, LA (2010) Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, MS and Stegmaier, M (2000) Economic determinants of electoral outcomes. Annual Review of Political Science 3, 183–219.Google Scholar
Lindberg, SI (2003) ‘It's our time to “Chop”’: do elections in Africa feed neo-patrimonialism rather than counter-act it? Democratization 10, 121–140.Google Scholar
Lindberg, SI (2006) Democracy and Elections in Africa. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lindberg, SI (2010) What accountability pressures do Mps in Africa face and how do they respond? Evidence from Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies 48, 117–142.Google Scholar
Lindberg, SI and Morrison, MKC (2008) Are African voters really ethnic or clientelistic? Survey evidence from Ghana. Political Science Quarterly 123, 95–122.Google Scholar
Lust, E and Waldner, D (2015) Unwelcome change: understanding, evaluating, and extending theories of democratic backsliding. US Agency for International Development 11.Google Scholar
Magaloni, B (2006) Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, B, Diaz-Cayeros, A and EstÉvez, F (2007) Clientelism and portfolio diversification: a model of electoral investment with applications to Mexico. In Kitschelt, H and Wilkinson, S (eds), Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 182–205.Google Scholar
Manning, C (2010) Mozambique's slide into one-party rule. Journal of Democracy 21, 151–165.Google Scholar
Mauzy, DK and Milne, RS (2002) Singapore Politics Under the People's Action Party. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morse, YL (2013) Party Matters: The Institutional Origins of Competitiveness and Hegemony in Post Cold War Africa (PHD dissertation). Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Morse, YL (2015) From single-party to electoral authoritarian regimes: the institutional origins of competitiveness in post-Cold War Africa. Comparative Politics 48, 126–151.Google Scholar
Muñoz, P (2014) An informational theory of campaign clientelism: the case of Peru. Comparative Politics 47, 79–98.Google Scholar
Paget, D (2014) Zambia: dominance won and lost. In Doorenspleet, R and Nijzink, L (Eds) Party Systems and Democracy in Africa. New York: Springer, 148–170.Google Scholar
Robinson, JA and Verdier, T (2002) The political economy of clientelism. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics 115, 260–291.Google Scholar
Sachsenroder, W (1998) Party politics and democratic development in East and Southeast Asia – a comparative view. In Sachsenröder, W and Frings, UlE (eds), Political Party Systems and Democratic Development in East and Southeast Asia. Aldershot: Ashgate Pub Ltd, pp. 1–35.Google Scholar
Schedler, A (2006) Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Scott, JC (1972) Patron-client politics and political change in Southeast Asia. American Political Science Review 66, 91–113.Google Scholar
Stokes, SC (2007 a) Is vote buying undemocratic? In Schaffer, FC (ed.), Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 81–100.Google Scholar
Stokes, SC (2007 b) Political clientelism. In Boix, C and Stokes, SC (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 603–627.Google Scholar
Templeman, KA (2012) The Origins and Decline of Dominant Party Systems: Taiwan's Transition in Comparative Perspective (PHD dissertation). The University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Thomas, JJ (2015) Party Duration: Examining the Effects of Incumbent Party Tenure on Election Outcomes (PHD dissertation). The University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Tremewan, C (1996) The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK.Google Scholar
Tufte, ER (1978) Political Control of the Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Un, K (2005) Patronage politics and hybrid democracy: political change in Cambodia, 1993–2003. Asian Perspective 29, 203–230.Google Scholar
Un, K (2011) Cambodia: moving away from democracy? International Political Science Review 32, 546–562.Google Scholar
Van De Walle, N (2007) Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? The evolution of political clientelism in Africa. In Kitschelt, H and Wilkinson, SI (eds), Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition: New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 50–67.Google Scholar
Wantchekon, L (2003) Clientelism and voting behavior: evidence from a field experiment in Benin. World Politics 55, 399–422.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, SI (2006) Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Young, DJ (2009) Is Clientelism at Work in African Elections? A Study of Voting Behavior in Kenya and Zambia. Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 106.Google Scholar