Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Patrons and Pork as Alternative Methods of Targeting Resources

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Primary Investigators: John D Huber Co-PI: Katharine A BaldwinTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Patrons and Pork as Alternative Methods of Targeting Resources0719989AbstractWhy do politicians sometimes use government resources to provide patronage tolocal elites, while at other times, they invest public funds in projects that benefit entire communities? The existing literature does not address this question; scholars have focused on explaining which communities receive government resources, not how broadly resources are distributed within communities. However, it is important to distinguish between a project that builds a road benefiting an entire town and a project that resurfaces the driveway leading to a local leader's home. Unfortunately, elites frequently capture the main benefits from development projects in poor communities, undermining the potential economic and social benefits of these investments. This research project involves collecting original data from Zambia to test theories of when national politicians use government resources to win the support of key local leaders rather than distributing them so that the wider community benefits. To distinguish between these two types of redistribution, I will collect data on the spatial distribution of public infrastructure projects relative to the homes of traditional chiefs, who are the most powerful local leaders in Zambia. My dataset will combine government data with my own Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of the locations of chiefs' homes and information obtained from an original survey of chiefs. The data analysis techniques proposed in this project have broad implications for the study of patronage politics, an area of research that has been hindered by the absence of empirical measures. The project proposes a geographic method of measuring the amount of patronage provided to local elites that can be replicated by other scholars studying similar topics. The project also has important implications for policymakers interested in improving the delivery of public goods and services to poor communities. It shows that infrastructure projects can be targeted narrowly at elites or they can be placed so that entire communities benefit. Individuals concerned with improving citizens' access to basic infrastructure need to understand the circumstances under which politicians can be encouraged to target resources so that they benefit a broader segment of their constituents.