Cash Transfers and Subsidies in Developing Democracies and Indigenous States (Recorded)

Session Submission Type: In-Person Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Cash transfers, direct subsidies, and other programmatic policies are fast cementing their place in the portfolio of services delivered by governments in developing countries and sovereign indigenous states. These policies originated in part to overcome bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption laden in the delivery of non-programmatic goods and services. But in doing so, they raise fundamental questions about state-citizen dynamics, notably the distributive and redistributive role of the state and its ability to improve the social and political welfare of its citizens. The four papers on this panel all explore the impacts of programmatic policies on political behavior and government responsiveness in different world regions: Brazil, India, Pakistan, and the sovereign indigenous tribes of the United States.

Kumar examines local government responsiveness to program beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, looking at the case of housing subsidies in urban India to find considerable heterogeneity in how local politicians resolve particularistic demands and public complaints. Frey focuses on the signaling effect of cash transfers, examining how incumbent parties in Brazil recruited bureaucrats responsible for enrolling individuals in a nationwide cash transfer program in order to showcase their parties’ administrative qualities to voters. Jamil looks at the gender-specific effects of transfers on political participation, finding that female recipients of unconditional cash transfers in Pakistan are not more likely to engage in politics despite feelings of increased personal autonomy and increased expectations of the role of the state. Mahdavi examines the long-term impacts of transfers on civic engagement, exploring how the perpetual flow of large cash transfers has shaped the civic activities of Alaska Natives and their participation in tribal governance.

All four papers draw on original data, including surveys, interviews, and administrative records, and they employ methods for causal inference in regression discontinuity designs and natural experiments. Collectively, these papers contribute to further our understanding of how distributive policies shape the dynamics between states and citizens in democratic contexts.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Competing interests: Subsidized Housing and Local Service Delivery in Urban India - Tanu Kumar, College of William and Mary

• Programmatic Policies, Bureaucratic Performance and Party Building in Brazil - Anderson Frey, University of Rochester

• Being Seen by the State: Cash Transfers and Women’s Participation in Pakistan - Rehan Rafay Jamil, Brown University

• Rentier Individuals: Political Consequences of Alaska Native Cash Transfers - Paasha Mahdavi, University of California, Santa Barbara

Chair

• Cesar Zucco Getulio Vargas Foundation

Discussants

• Cesar Zucco Getulio Vargas Foundation

• Alesha Porisky Northern Illinois University