The Demand Side of Clientelism

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Political clientelism is a vertical relation where a client gives up political voice in exchange for personalized material benefits from a patron. Clientelism has generated strong interest in the academic and policy world, mainly because of its supposed harmful implications for political accountability, provision of public goods, and the persistence of inequality. Recent political science work on clientelism has focused mainly on its supply side (i.e. the party or patron choices), leaving the demand side (i.e. the client's perspective) largely unexplored. Ethnographic research, however, highlights the relevance of the client for sustaining clientelistic relationships. This project seeks to undertake a systematic investigation of the demand side of clientelism in Tunisia and South Africa, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. These countries are geographically diverse but typical of countries that exhibit clientelistic as well as programmatic (i.e. policy-based) politics. Our focus is primarily on understanding demand for clientelism in general, but we also seek to provide insights on different forms of clientelism, such as "traditional" clientelism vs. vote buying. We develop hypotheses on how certain micro factors such as perceptions of political efficacy and values regarding the legitimacy of social inequalities, as well as contextual factors such as the degree of isolation of the community, affect demand for clientelism. In order to test these hypotheses, we will conduct individual level surveys in Tunisia and South Africa. These surveys (with a sample of around 2,500 individuals per country) will collect information on individual socioeconomic characteristics, values and perceptions, and demand for clientelism. Importantly, demand for clientelism will be measured using list experiments, a technique used to obtain trustworthy estimates on sensitive issues, such as clientelism. Our choice of empirical methods has a strong focus on obtaining causal inferences. Our micro level hypotheses will be tested using "survey experiments", (i.e. randomized treatments embedded in our surveys), with information treatments adapted from social psychology literature. The surveys will be conducted in different locations within each country, and these locations will be selected purposefully in order to test the role of contextual factors. Focus group discussions will generate rich qualitative and comparable data on perceptions and forms of clientelism and complement survey findings with insights into the mechanisms underlying the survey experiment results. Our international team is composed of renowned scholars with expertise in clientelism and behavioral economics, and ample experience in conducting experimental surveys and qualitative work in Tunisia and South Africa.