Clients and Constituents
Political Responsiveness in Patronage Democracies
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:20th Jun '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£112.50(9780190945398)
Scholars of distributive politics often emphasize partisanship and clientelism. However, as Jennifer Bussell demonstrates in Clients and Constituents, legislators in "patronage democracies" also provide substantial constituency service: non-contingent, direct assistance to individual citizens. Bussell shows how the uneven character of access to services at the local level-often due to biased allocation on the part of local intermediaries-generates demand for help from higher-level officials. The nature of these appeals in turn provides incentives for politicians to help their constituents obtain public benefits. Drawing on a new cross-national dataset and extensive evidence from India-including sustained qualitative shadowing of politicians, novel elite and citizen surveys, and an experimental audit study with a near census of Indian state and national legislators-this book provides a theoretical and empirical examination of political responsiveness in developing countries. It highlights the potential for an under-appreciated form of democratic accountability, one that is however rooted in the character of patronage-based politics.
Bussell's research provides an intriguing insight into constituency service in patronage democracies with useful nuances for understanding under what conditions politicians will act in a partisan or non-partisan basis. These nuances are supported by arguments carefully constructed around data and evidence. Importantly, the book also opens the door for further research. * Albertus Schoeman, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics *
- Winner of Winner of the 2020 Giovanni Sartori Prize for Best Book from the Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section of the American Political Science Association.
ISBN: 9780190945404
Dimensions: 155mm x 234mm x 23mm
Weight: 567g
392 pages