Clientelist Mobilization and Political Participation Outside of the Electoral Arena
Abstract Scholarship on clientelist mobilization has focused almost exclusively on electoral clientelism, that is efforts by patrons and brokers to encourage turnout and participation in campaign rallies. What is less well understood is the impact of clientelist mobilization on other modes of political participation, like protest activity and citizen claim making. To fill this gap, I use LAPOP survey data from 2010 and 2014 to explore the relationship between vote-buying and nonelectoral forms of political activity. Despite the expectation by many that collective action and clientelist mobilization are incompatible, this study finds a strong relationship between vote-buying efforts and participation in protests in most of Latin America. Similarly, people who receive vote-buying offers are much more likely to engage in claim-making activities. I explore the mechanisms through which clientelism encourages political activism, highlighting ways that clientelist networks work through civic organizations and foster stronger partisan identities and greater political engagement.
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AmericasBarometer by the LAPOP Lab, www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop
Auerbach, A. (2016). Clients and Communities: The Political Economy of Party Network Organization and Development in India’s Urban Slums. World Politics, 68(1), 111-148.
Auerbach, A. (2017). Neighborhood Associations and the Urban Poor: India’s Slum Development Committees. World Development, 96, 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.002
Auerbach, A., & Thachil T. (2018). How Clients Select Brokers: Competition and Choice in India’s Slums. American Political Science Review, 112(2), 775-791. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305541800028X
Auyero, J. (1999). From the Client’s Point of View: How Poor People Perceive and Evaluate Political Clientelism. Theory and Society 28(2), 297-334. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006905214896
Auyero, J. (2000). The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account. Latin American Research Review 35(3), 55-81. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0023879100018653
Auyero, J. (2007). Routine politics and violence in Argentina: The gray zone of state power. Cambridge University Press.
Auyero, J., Lapegna, P., & Poma, F. P. (2009). Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship. Latin American Politics and Society, 51(3), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2009.00054.x
Beltrán, U., & Castro Cornejo, R. (2019). La activación clientelar del electorado en México. Entre compra de votos y comunicación política. Política y gobierno, 26(2), 171-204.
Boulding, C., & Holzner C. A. (2020). Community Organizations and Latin America’s Poorest Citizens: Voting, Protesting and Contacting Government. Latin American Politics and Society, 62(4), 98-125. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2020.17
Boulding, C., & Holzner C. A. (2021). Voice and Inequality: Poverty and Political Participation in Latin American Democracies. Oxford University Press.
Brusco, V., Nazareno, M., & Stokes, S. (2004). Vote Buying in Argentina. Latin American Research Review, 39(2), 66-88. https://doi.org/10.1353/lar.2004.0022
Canel, E. (2012). “Fragmented Clientelism” in Montevideo: Training Ground for Community Engagement with participatory Decentralization. In T.Hilgers (Ed.), Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, (pp. 137-158). Palgrave McMillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275998_8
Carlin, R. E., & Moseley, M. (2015). Good democrats, bad targets: Democratic values and clientelistic vote buying. The Journal of Politics, 77(1), 14-26. https://doi.org/10.1086/678307
Carlin, R. E., & Moseley, M. W. (2022). When Clientelism Backfires: Vote Buying, Democratic Attitudes, and Electoral Retaliation in Latin America. Political Research Quarterly, 75(3), 766-781. https://doi.org/10.11177/10659129211020126
Castro Cornejo, R. and Beltrán, U. (2022). Who Receives Electoral Gifts? It Depends on Question Wording: Experimental Evidence from Mexico. Political Behavior, 44(1), 227-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09618-1
Córdova, A. (2008). Methodological Note: Measuring Relative Wealth Using Household Asset Indicators. AmericasBarometer Insights, 6, 1-9.
Cornelius, W. (1974). Urbanization and Political Demand Making: Political Participation Among the Migrant Poor in Latin American Cities. American Political Science Review, 68(3), 1125-1146. https://doi.org/10.2307/1959152
Dixit, A., & Londregan, J. (1996). The Determinants of Success of Special Interests in Redistributive Politics. The Journal of Politics, 58(4), 1132-55. https://doi.org/10.2307/2960152
Eisenstadt, S. N., & Roniger, L. (1980). Patron-Client Relations as a Model of Structuring Social Exchange. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22(1), 42-77. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500009154
Epstein, D. J. (2009). Clientelism Versus Ideology: Problems of Party Development in Brazil. Party Politics, 15(3), 335-355. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809102250
Escobar, A., & Alvarez, S. (Eds.). (1998). Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy, Routledge.
Garay, C., Palmer-Rubin, B., & Poertner, M. (2020). Organizational and Partisan Brokerage of Social Benefits: Social Policy Linkages in Mexico. World Development, 136, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105103
Gay, R. (1998). Rethinking Clientelism: Demands, Discourses and Practices in Contemporary Brazil. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (65), 7-24.
González Ocantos, E., de Jonge, C. K., Meléndez, C., Osorio, J., & Nickerson, D. W. (2012). Vote buying and social desirability bias: Experimental evidence from Nicaragua. American Journal of Political Science, 56(1), 202-217. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00540.x
González Ocantos, E., de Jonge, C., & Nickerson, D. (2014). The Conditionality of Vote-Buying Norms: Experimental Evidence from Latin America. American Journal of Political Science, 58(1), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12047
Hicken, A. (2011). Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science, 14(1), 102-132. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.031908.220508
Hilgers T. (2009). ’Who is using Whom?’ Clientelism from the Client’s Perspective. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, 15(1), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13260219.2009.9649902
Hilgers, T. (Ed.). (2012). Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Holland, A., & Palmer-Rubin, B. (2015) Beyond the Machine: Clientelist Brokers and Interest Organizations in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies, 48(9), 1186-1223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015574883
Holzner, C. (2004). The End of Clientelism? Strong and Weak Networks in a Mexican Squatter Movement. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 9(3), 223–40. https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.9.3.f588244l3644j156
Kitschelt, H., & Wilkinson, S. (2007). Patrons, Clients, and Policies. Cambridge University Press.
Lapegna, P. (2013). Social Movements and Patronage Politics: Processes of Demobilization and Dual Pressure. Sociological Forum, 28(4), 842-863. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12059
Lapegna, P., & Auyero, J. (2012). Democratic Processes, Patronage Politics, and Contentious Collective Action in El Alto, Bolivia. In T. Hilgers (Ed.), Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics (pp. 63-80). Palgrave McMillan. https://doi.org/10.10157/9781137275998_4
Lazar, S. (2004). Personalist Politics, Clientelism and Citizenship: Local Elections in El Alto, Bolivia. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 23(2), 228-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2004.00106.x
Levitsky, S. (2003). Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Moseley, M. W. (2018). Protest State: The Rise of Everyday Contention in Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nichter, S. (2008). Vote buying or Turnout Buying? American Political Science Review, 102(1), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055408080106
Nichter, S. (2018). Votes for Survival: Relational Clientelism in Latin America. Cambridge University Press.
Nichter, S., & Peress, M. (2016). Request Fulfilling: When Citizens Demand Clientelist Benefits. Comparative Political Studies, 50(8), 1086-1117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016666838
Palmer-Rubin, B. (2019). Evading the patronage trap: Organizational capacity and demand making in Mexico. Comparative Political Studies, 52(13-14), 2097-2134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414019830745
Poma, F. P. (2020). Collective Action, Violence and Clientelism during Argentina’s 2001 Crisis. Theory and Action, 13(3), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.3798/tia.1937-0237.2035
Price, J. J. (2019). Keystone Organizations versus Clientelism. Comparative Politics, 51(3), 407-427.
Roniger, L. (1990). Hierarchy and Trust in Modern Mexico and Brazil. New York: Praeger.
Ruth, S. (2016). Clientelism and the Utility of the Left-Right Dimension in Latin America. Latin American Politics and Society, 58(1), 72-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2016.00300.x
Scott J. (1969). Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change. American Political Science Review, 63(4), 1142-1158. https://doi.org/10.2307/1955076
Scott J. (1972). Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia. The American Political Science Review, 66(1), 91-113. https://doi.org/10.2307/1959280
Stokes, S. C. (2005). Perverse Accountability: A Formal Model of Machine Politics with Evidence from Argentina. American Political Science Review, 99(3), 315-325. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051683
Szwarcberg, M. (2015). Mobilizing Poor Voters: Machine Politics, Clientelism, and Social Networks in Argentina. Cambridge University Press.
Weitz-Shapiro, R. (2012). What Wins Votes: Why Some Politicians Opt Out of Clientelism. American Journal of Political Science, 56(3), 568-583. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00578.x
Wolfinger, R. E. (1972). Why Political Machines Have Not Withered Away and Other Revisionist Thoughts. The Journal of Politics, 34(2), 365-398. https://doi.org/10.2307/2129360
Auerbach, A. (2016). Clients and Communities: The Political Economy of Party Network Organization and Development in India’s Urban Slums. World Politics, 68(1), 111-148.
Auerbach, A. (2017). Neighborhood Associations and the Urban Poor: India’s Slum Development Committees. World Development, 96, 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.002
Auerbach, A., & Thachil T. (2018). How Clients Select Brokers: Competition and Choice in India’s Slums. American Political Science Review, 112(2), 775-791. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305541800028X
Auyero, J. (1999). From the Client’s Point of View: How Poor People Perceive and Evaluate Political Clientelism. Theory and Society 28(2), 297-334. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006905214896
Auyero, J. (2000). The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account. Latin American Research Review 35(3), 55-81. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0023879100018653
Auyero, J. (2007). Routine politics and violence in Argentina: The gray zone of state power. Cambridge University Press.
Auyero, J., Lapegna, P., & Poma, F. P. (2009). Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship. Latin American Politics and Society, 51(3), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2009.00054.x
Beltrán, U., & Castro Cornejo, R. (2019). La activación clientelar del electorado en México. Entre compra de votos y comunicación política. Política y gobierno, 26(2), 171-204.
Boulding, C., & Holzner C. A. (2020). Community Organizations and Latin America’s Poorest Citizens: Voting, Protesting and Contacting Government. Latin American Politics and Society, 62(4), 98-125. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2020.17
Boulding, C., & Holzner C. A. (2021). Voice and Inequality: Poverty and Political Participation in Latin American Democracies. Oxford University Press.
Brusco, V., Nazareno, M., & Stokes, S. (2004). Vote Buying in Argentina. Latin American Research Review, 39(2), 66-88. https://doi.org/10.1353/lar.2004.0022
Canel, E. (2012). “Fragmented Clientelism” in Montevideo: Training Ground for Community Engagement with participatory Decentralization. In T.Hilgers (Ed.), Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, (pp. 137-158). Palgrave McMillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275998_8
Carlin, R. E., & Moseley, M. (2015). Good democrats, bad targets: Democratic values and clientelistic vote buying. The Journal of Politics, 77(1), 14-26. https://doi.org/10.1086/678307
Carlin, R. E., & Moseley, M. W. (2022). When Clientelism Backfires: Vote Buying, Democratic Attitudes, and Electoral Retaliation in Latin America. Political Research Quarterly, 75(3), 766-781. https://doi.org/10.11177/10659129211020126
Castro Cornejo, R. and Beltrán, U. (2022). Who Receives Electoral Gifts? It Depends on Question Wording: Experimental Evidence from Mexico. Political Behavior, 44(1), 227-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09618-1
Córdova, A. (2008). Methodological Note: Measuring Relative Wealth Using Household Asset Indicators. AmericasBarometer Insights, 6, 1-9.
Cornelius, W. (1974). Urbanization and Political Demand Making: Political Participation Among the Migrant Poor in Latin American Cities. American Political Science Review, 68(3), 1125-1146. https://doi.org/10.2307/1959152
Dixit, A., & Londregan, J. (1996). The Determinants of Success of Special Interests in Redistributive Politics. The Journal of Politics, 58(4), 1132-55. https://doi.org/10.2307/2960152
Eisenstadt, S. N., & Roniger, L. (1980). Patron-Client Relations as a Model of Structuring Social Exchange. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22(1), 42-77. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500009154
Epstein, D. J. (2009). Clientelism Versus Ideology: Problems of Party Development in Brazil. Party Politics, 15(3), 335-355. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809102250
Escobar, A., & Alvarez, S. (Eds.). (1998). Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy, Routledge.
Garay, C., Palmer-Rubin, B., & Poertner, M. (2020). Organizational and Partisan Brokerage of Social Benefits: Social Policy Linkages in Mexico. World Development, 136, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105103
Gay, R. (1998). Rethinking Clientelism: Demands, Discourses and Practices in Contemporary Brazil. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (65), 7-24.
González Ocantos, E., de Jonge, C. K., Meléndez, C., Osorio, J., & Nickerson, D. W. (2012). Vote buying and social desirability bias: Experimental evidence from Nicaragua. American Journal of Political Science, 56(1), 202-217. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00540.x
González Ocantos, E., de Jonge, C., & Nickerson, D. (2014). The Conditionality of Vote-Buying Norms: Experimental Evidence from Latin America. American Journal of Political Science, 58(1), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12047
Hicken, A. (2011). Clientelism. Annual Review of Political Science, 14(1), 102-132. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.031908.220508
Hilgers T. (2009). ’Who is using Whom?’ Clientelism from the Client’s Perspective. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, 15(1), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13260219.2009.9649902
Hilgers, T. (Ed.). (2012). Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Holland, A., & Palmer-Rubin, B. (2015) Beyond the Machine: Clientelist Brokers and Interest Organizations in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies, 48(9), 1186-1223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015574883
Holzner, C. (2004). The End of Clientelism? Strong and Weak Networks in a Mexican Squatter Movement. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 9(3), 223–40. https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.9.3.f588244l3644j156
Kitschelt, H., & Wilkinson, S. (2007). Patrons, Clients, and Policies. Cambridge University Press.
Lapegna, P. (2013). Social Movements and Patronage Politics: Processes of Demobilization and Dual Pressure. Sociological Forum, 28(4), 842-863. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12059
Lapegna, P., & Auyero, J. (2012). Democratic Processes, Patronage Politics, and Contentious Collective Action in El Alto, Bolivia. In T. Hilgers (Ed.), Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics (pp. 63-80). Palgrave McMillan. https://doi.org/10.10157/9781137275998_4
Lazar, S. (2004). Personalist Politics, Clientelism and Citizenship: Local Elections in El Alto, Bolivia. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 23(2), 228-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2004.00106.x
Levitsky, S. (2003). Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Moseley, M. W. (2018). Protest State: The Rise of Everyday Contention in Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nichter, S. (2008). Vote buying or Turnout Buying? American Political Science Review, 102(1), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055408080106
Nichter, S. (2018). Votes for Survival: Relational Clientelism in Latin America. Cambridge University Press.
Nichter, S., & Peress, M. (2016). Request Fulfilling: When Citizens Demand Clientelist Benefits. Comparative Political Studies, 50(8), 1086-1117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016666838
Palmer-Rubin, B. (2019). Evading the patronage trap: Organizational capacity and demand making in Mexico. Comparative Political Studies, 52(13-14), 2097-2134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414019830745
Poma, F. P. (2020). Collective Action, Violence and Clientelism during Argentina’s 2001 Crisis. Theory and Action, 13(3), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.3798/tia.1937-0237.2035
Price, J. J. (2019). Keystone Organizations versus Clientelism. Comparative Politics, 51(3), 407-427.
Roniger, L. (1990). Hierarchy and Trust in Modern Mexico and Brazil. New York: Praeger.
Ruth, S. (2016). Clientelism and the Utility of the Left-Right Dimension in Latin America. Latin American Politics and Society, 58(1), 72-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2016.00300.x
Scott J. (1969). Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change. American Political Science Review, 63(4), 1142-1158. https://doi.org/10.2307/1955076
Scott J. (1972). Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia. The American Political Science Review, 66(1), 91-113. https://doi.org/10.2307/1959280
Stokes, S. C. (2005). Perverse Accountability: A Formal Model of Machine Politics with Evidence from Argentina. American Political Science Review, 99(3), 315-325. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051683
Szwarcberg, M. (2015). Mobilizing Poor Voters: Machine Politics, Clientelism, and Social Networks in Argentina. Cambridge University Press.
Weitz-Shapiro, R. (2012). What Wins Votes: Why Some Politicians Opt Out of Clientelism. American Journal of Political Science, 56(3), 568-583. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00578.x
Wolfinger, R. E. (1972). Why Political Machines Have Not Withered Away and Other Revisionist Thoughts. The Journal of Politics, 34(2), 365-398. https://doi.org/10.2307/2129360
Holzner, C. A. (2023). Clientelist Mobilization and Political Participation Outside of the Electoral Arena. Revista Latinoamericana De Opinión Pública, 12(1), 41–68. https://doi.org/10.14201/rlop.31164
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