16:50 - 18:30
P5
Room: South Hall 2B
Panel Session 5
Abhit Bhandari, Erin York - Political Connections, Patronage, and Consumer Attitudes: Evidence from Morocco
Andy Harris - Does Improving Electoral Access Facilitate Clientelism? A Reassessment of Theory and Evidence
Sarah Engler - The nature of party-voter linkages and party change in Central and Eastern Europe
Sergiu Lipcean - Does state funding of political parties reduce political corruption? Evidence from the post-communist space
Political Connections, Patronage, and Consumer Attitudes: Evidence from Morocco
P5-01
Presented by: Abhit Bhandari, Erin York
Abhit Bhandari 1, Erin York 2
1 Temple University
2 Vanderbilt University
Clientelism alters citizens’ behavior as voters, but can it also impact citizens as consumers? A substantial body of scholarship examines the political consequences of clientelism in developing countries. Yet, the broader economic consequences of clientelism remain unclear. We argue that despite voting for politicians who offer targeted goods, citizens abstain from financial transactions with these politicians in the future. Clientelistic politicians, by demonstrating their willingness to bend rules in the electoral process, lead consumers to believe they will also be untrustworthy in a transactional environment. We test this theory using evidence from a conjoint experiment in Morocco, a country where politicians often have one foot in the private sector. The results demonstrate the linkages between patronage networks and consumer behavior in contexts characterized by clientelism and suggest that political support does not translate to economic support.