Clientelistic politics and economic development

The purpose of the workshop is to set out the research agenda and the modalities of the project going forward. The motivation of the project is the pervasive presence of clientelism in the delivery of public goods that matter for the achievement of the SDGs. This issue has broad systemic consequences that undermine democracy and development in a variety of ways — by lowering public good provision, by increasing corruption, by leading to ineffective political competition, and by reducing the accountability of elected officials.

The research questions that the project will address are:

1. What explains the pervasiveness of clientelistic politics in developing countries, and what are its developmental implications?
2. What kinds of institutional changes enable more programmatic forms of politics to emerge?
3. Why have some developing countries been successful in moving from clientelistic to programmatic politics whilst others have not?