Clientelism, public goods provision, and governance

It is widely believed that clientelism—the giving of material goods in return for electoral support—is associated with poorer development outcomes. However, systematic cross-country evidence on the deleterious effects clientelism outcomes lacking. In this paper we examine relationship between political clientelism, public provision, and governance quality using panel data 161 countries period 1900–2017. We distinguish two manifestations clientelism—whether vote buying exists, whether parties offer to their constituents exchange support (non-programmatic party linkages). find negative outcomes, increases leading lower coverage welfare programmes, increased corruption, weaker rule law. also are mainly through non-programmatic linkages rather than practice buying.