Publication

This paper provides a theory of clientelism and the logic of vote buying, testing it with empirical evidence from Mexico. The authors build on existing theories of distributive politics developed for understanding the determinants of discretional welfare transfers and on the growing literature on public good provision in the developing world. They argue that politicians choose clientelism as a party-building strategy to lock voters in a long-term political relationship based on material dependence and explain when and why parties deliver discretional private transfers (clientelism) to their core voters.