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How Do Remittances Shape Electoral Strategies Back Home? Evidence from Mexico’s 2006 Presidential Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

Cristina Álvarez-Mingote
Cristina Álvarez-Mingote*
Affiliation:
Cristina Álvarez-Mingote is a research specialist in the AgReach program in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

How does international migration affect political parties’ electoral strategies in the sending countries? This article argues that remittances help political parties decide whom to target during elections. Drawing from theories of vote targeting and those on the effects of remittances, this study addresses how political parties’ electoral strategies follow the specific characteristics of remittance recipients. Using individual-level data from Mexico’s 2006 presidential elections, the results show that receiving remittances had a significant impact on experiencing electoral targeting, especially by the then-incumbent PAN. This study reveals the importance of remittances in shaping the strategies of Mexican political parties.

Keywords

remittancesmigrationMexicopolitical partieselectoral strategies
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 55 - 79
Copyright
© University of Miami 2019 

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