Clientelistic Dynamics in Programmatic Settings: The Case of Chile

• In Event: New Approaches in the Study of Citizen-Party Linkage

Abstract

Parties worldwide rely simultaneously on programmatic and clientelistic strategies to link heterogeneous constituencies. Scholarship has reported the presence of diversified portfolios in very different settings, such as Japan (Catalinac and Muraoka, forthcoming), Brazil (Johannessen, 2019), Chile (Luna, 2014), India (Thachil, 2014), Mexico (Magaloni et al. 2007), or Turkey (Bulut, 2020). Literature on party-voters linkages, however, does not offer a compelling explanation of the drivers and causal mechanisms triggering hybrid linkage strategies. Models such as Diversification of portfolio, Segmented Representation, and Non-Policy model, focus the analysis on the variation of linkages across districts with different socioeconomic conditions: programmatic portfolio appeals to wealthier voters while clientelism is used to reach out to poor constituencies. Departing from these conventional accounts, I introduce a new framework to explain hybrid linkage strategies in municipal environments where parties are predominantly programmatic. Using a mix-method strategy and intensive fieldwork in three urban Chilean municipalities with different socioeconomic features, I contend that demand-side factors trigger hybrid linkages: When local associations provide electoral support to local politicians contingent to target distribution of municipal resources, then clientelism is activated. Using the American Barometer survey, I test the insights collected on the fieldwork.

Author

• Gonzalo Contreras, Tulane University