Precarious democracies, political negotiation and selective predation
Abstract
This paper demonstrates that a precarious democracy is harmful to the poor rather than benefiting them as long as the governing party, being a highly informal organization, includes a cartel of political patrons and business people. The mayor is unable to govern freely due to controls or vetoes exercised by those collective actors to which he/she belongs. Not having been elected democratically, the objective of these groups is to co-opt the state at the subnational level by violating civil rights and liberties on election days and committing crimes against the public administration during the term of government.
References
Bandiera, O. and G. Levy. 2011. Diversity and the Power of the Elites in Democratic Societies: Evidence from Indonesia, Journal of Public Economics, 95: 1322-1330.
Bejarano, A. M. 2011. Precarious Democracies: Understanding Regime Stability and Change in Colombia and Venezuela, University of Notre Dame Press.
Brunner, E. and S. Ross. 2010. Is the Median Voter Decisive? Evidence from Referenda Voting Patterns, Journal of Public Economics, 94: 898-910.
Cendales, A. 2012. Vote Buying, Political Patronage and Selective Plunder, Latin American Journal of Economics, 49(2): 237-276.
Della Porta, D. 2004. Political Parties and Corruption: Ten Hypotheses on Five Vicious Circles, Crime, Law & Social Change, 42: 35-60.
Freidenberg, F. and S. Levitsky. 2007. Organización informal de los partidos en América Latina, Desarrollo Económico, 46 (184): 539-568.
Gallego, A. and Raciborski, R. 2008. Clientelism, Income Inequality, and Social Preferences: An Evolutionary Approach To Poverty Traps, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá.
García-Pérez, L. I. and A. Villar. 2009. Discrimination and Equality of Opportunity, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Working Paper Series, WP Econ, no. 09.05.
Gruner, H. 2009. Inequality and Political Consensus, Theory and Decision, 67: 239-265.
Moreno-Ternero, J. D. and J. Roemer. 2006. Impartiality, Solidarity and Priority in the Theory of Justice, Econometrica, 7(5): 1419-1427.
Paldam, M. 2008. Vote and Popularity Functions, in Ch. Rowley and F. Schneider (eds.) Readings in Public Choice and Constitutional Political Economy, Springer.
Portes, A. 2006. Institutions and Development: A Conceptual Reanalysis, Population and Development Review, 32(2): 233-262.
Prats, J. 2004. Gobernabilidad para el desarrollo. Propuesta de un marco conceptual y analítico, in C. Binetti y F. Carrillo (eds.), ¿Democracia con desigualdad? Una mirada de Europa hacia América Latina, BID, Unión Europea y Alfaomega, Bogotá.
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press.
Rehren, A. 2000. Clientelismo político, corrupción y reforma del Estado en Chile, DT no. 305, Fundación Tinker.
Roemer, J. E. 2001. Political Competition: Theory and Applications, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
Roemer, J. E. 2004. Eclectic Distributional Ethics, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, 3(3): 267-281.
Schaffer, F. C. 2006. What is Vote Buying? in F.C. Schaffer (ed.) Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying, Boulder, CO, and London, Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Tsebelis, G. 2000. Veto Players and Institutional Analysis, Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, 13(4): 441-474.
Tsebelis, G. and E. Aleman. 2005. Presidential Conditional Agenda Setting in Latin America, World Politics, 57(03): 396-420.
-
Abstract viewed - 835 times
-
PDF downloaded: 227 times
-
XML downloaded: 0 times