Mobilizing for Elections
Patronage and Political Machines in Southeast Asia

Provides a new framework for understanding how and why politicians distribute patronage to win elections using Southeast Asian case studies.

Edward Aspinall (Author), Meredith L. Weiss (Author), Allen Hicken (Author), Paul D. Hutchcroft (Author)

9781316513804, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 August 2022

380 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.63 kg

'Mobilizing for Elections is a major contribution to studies of clientelism, patronage and elections. It fundamentally shifts attention away from micro-level, voter-broker-politician linkages and toward distinct electoral mobilization regimes through which politicians distribute resources, mobilize networks, and implement public policies. And drawing on extensive, well-executed research across Southeast Asia, it makes a convincing argument that historical legacies, institutional differences, and social-group characteristics explain the different mobilization regimes. This is a seminal study that cautions against assumptions that findings on clientelism transfer easily from one context to another, provides a framework for understanding different findings, and raises important new research questions.' Ellen Lust, Professor and Founding Director of the Program on Governance and Local Development, University of Gothenburg

Politicians in Southeast Asia, as in many other regions, win elections by distributing cash, goods, jobs, projects, and other benefits to supporters, but the ways in which they do this vary tremendously, both across and within countries. Mobilizing for Elections presents a new framework for analyzing variation in patronage democracies, focusing on distinct forms of patronage and different networks through which it is distributed. The book draws on an extensive, multi-country, multi-year research effort involving interactions with hundreds of politicians and vote brokers, as well as surveys of voters and political campaigners across the region. Chapters explore how local machines in the Philippines, ad hoc election teams in Indonesia, and political parties in Malaysia pursue distinctive clusters of strategies of patronage distribution – what the authors term electoral mobilization regimes. In doing so, the book shows how and why patronage politics varies, and how it works on the ground.

1. Patronage and Political Machines in Southeast Asia
2. Historical and Institutional Foundations: National Parties, Ad Hoc Teams, and Local Machines
4. Targeting Individuals: Don't You Forget About Me
5. Targeting Groups: Pork Barreling and Club Goods
6. Hijacked Programs: Using Public Policy for Patronage Purposes
7. Patronage and Identity: Domesticating Difference
8. Subnational Variation: Violence, Hierarchy, and Islands of Exception
9. Conclusion: Patterns, Permutations, and Policy Implications.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Black & Asian studies [JFSL3]