Grassroots Politics: Collective Action, Elites, and Local Political Behavior

Session Submission Type: In-Person Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Despite the strong focus on national politics in democracies around the world, many important political dynamics take place locally. Changes in the provision of services and social programs promoted by central governments create new incentives for the political strategies of both political elites and citizens. Although the effects of previous arrangements create a path dependent trajectory for the organization of local politics, political elites and citizens are constantly adapting their strategies for winning votes and mobilizing to improve their local living conditions, respectively. The papers promote multiple approaches and methods to understand these different layers and relationships in local politics in diverse contexts. They explore both how policies managed by central governments affect local political elites and how citizens organize locally to select and influence local political candidates, especially through neighborhood associations.

Kasahara, Hidalgo, and Melo explore how decades of drought relief programs have shaped the patterns of political competition in the Brazilian semiarid zone through a geographic discontinuity design. Looking also at Brazil, Cooperman examines how candidate characteristics and organizational endorsements influence voter preferences in rural communities by employing a survey experiment. Kolberg theorizes about the effectiveness of community leaders by examining qualitative evidence from Colombia. Lastly, Huberts and Chriswell investigate to what extent community mobilization for one type of the demand translates into future collective action for other types of demands through survey data and qualitative evidence from Mexico City. By exploring different aspects in local politics, this panel aims to a broader understanding of similarities and specificities in local politics in Latin America.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Competitive Oligarchies? Long Term Effects of Local Development Policy in Brazil - Yuri Kasahara, Oslo Metropolitan University; Marcus Andre Melo, University of Pernambuco; F. Daniel Hidalgo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Community Organizing and Local Political Behavior in Brazil - Alicia Dailey Cooperman, Texas A&M University

• Community Leaders, Politicians, and the Public Good in Colombian Neighborhoods (Pre-Recorded) - Deanna Kolberg, University of Michigan

• Collective Action Infrastructure: Downstream Consequences of Urban Organizing (Pre-Recorded) - Alyssa Huberts, Harvard University; Kaitlyn Chriswell, Harvard University

Chair

• F. Daniel Hidalgo Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Discussants

• Mathias Poertner London School of Economics and Political Science

• Taylor C. Boas Boston University