The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Democracy, Credibility, and Clientelism
Abstract
Despite having adopted the political institutions of established democracies, democratizing countries display a systematically different pattern of fiscal outcomes. This article attributes these differences to the low credibility of electoral promises in new democracies. We study a model of electoral competition where candidates have two costly means to make themselves credible: spending resources to communicate directly with voters and exploiting preexisting patron-client networks. The costs of building credibility are endogenous and lead to higher targeted transfers and corruption and lower public good provision. The analysis demonstrates that in low-credibility states, political appeals to patron-client networks may be welfare enhancing, but in the long run, they delay political development by discouraging direct appeals to voters that are essential for credible mass-based political parties. The model explains why public investment and corruption are higher in younger democracies and why democratizing reforms had greater success in Victorian England than in the Dominican Republic. (JEL D720, H110, H300, H400, H500, O100)
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Cites
The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. A. (2001) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.91.5.1369 · Cited by 8,517
The Logic of Political Survival
Bueno de Mesquita, B., Smith, A., Siverson, R. M., & Morrow, J. D. (2003) · doi:10.7551/mitpress/4292.001.0001 · Cited by 4,217 · cited 2×
“For example, equation (11) holds if and only if (R+ γr2)12 ≥ (R + γN)P (q,q(1)).”
Congress: The Electoral Connection, by David R. Mayhew
Page, B. I. (1975) · Political Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2148248 · Cited by 3,130
New Tools in Comparative Political Economy: The Database of Political Institutions
Beck, T. (2001) · The World Bank Economic Review · doi:10.1093/wber/15.1.165 · Cited by 2,798
On the Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Moore, B. (1984) · Critique and Anti-Critique · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-86027-2_4 · Cited by 2,694
The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. H., & Robinson, J. A. (2000) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.244582 · Cited by 2,663
Incumbent performance and electoral control
Ferejohn, J. (1986) · Public Choice · doi:10.1007/bf00124924 · Cited by 2,161
The Determinants of Success of Special Interests in Redistributive Politics
Dixit, A., & Londregan, J. (1996) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.2307/2960152 · Cited by 1,506
Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia
Scott, J. C. (1972) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.2307/1959280 · Cited by 1,245
Clientelism, Credibility, and the Policy Choices of Young Democracies
Keefer, P. (2007) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00282.x · Cited by 890
Self-citation
Cited by
Clientelism, Credibility, and the Policy Choices of Young Democracies
Keefer, P. (2007) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00282.x · Cited by 890
Self-citationHicken, A. (2011) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.031908.220508 · Cited by 832
The Political Economy of Clientelism*
Robinson, J. A., & Verdier, T. (2013) · The Scandinavian Journal of Economics · doi:10.1111/sjoe.12010 · Cited by 554
The Political Economy of Kenya's Crisis
Mueller, S. D. (2008) · Journal of Eastern African Studies · doi:10.1080/17531050802058302 · Cited by 316
The Political Economy of Slums: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Fox, S. (2014) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.08.005 · Cited by 307
Metadata
- Authors
- Keefer, P., & Vlaicu, R.
- Venue
- Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-11-29
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 371-406
- ISSN
- 1465-7341 (ISSN-L)
- 8756-6222
- OpenAlex
- W1968837394
- Cited by
- 457
- References
- 34
- FWCI
- 56.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
