[Reader-list] `When Clientelism Influences More than Voter Turnout'; talk by Mary Breeding; CSDS, Dec 10

[Rajesh Ramakrishnan]

Wednesday, 10th December, 2008

Mary E. Breeding will speak on

`When Clientelism Influences More than Voter Turnout: The
Representational Effects of Clientelism in Bangalore Elections'

at 2:30 PM in the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi – 110 054


Do material inducements supplied by political parties influence
citizens' ideological positions in electoral competitions?  Throughout
the developing world today there are many accounts of clientelism in
which politicians provide constituents—often poor citizens— with
material inducements and access to benefits to gain political support.
Mary Breeding's research asks how clientelism influences citizen's
ideological positions relative to political parties supplying
clientelist benefits. When the distribution of material benefits
systematically influences citizen's ideology in electoral
competitions, then benefits may have representational effects as well
as the most analysed effect—getting people to vote.  Using original
public opinion data collected from surveys of 1664 households and 40
political leaders during one year of field research in Bangalore,
India, Breeding assesses the influence of clientelism on citizens'
ideological positions relative to the ideological positions of parties
supplying benefits.


Mary E. Breeding is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Foreign
Service at Georgetown University. She received her Ph.D. in Political
Science from the School of Public Affairs at American University in
May 2008. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for
Social and Economic Change, Bangalore in 2005 and 2006-07. Her
research interests include: clientelism, political representation,
South Asia and international migration.