Non-Policy Politics
Richer Voters, Poorer Voters, and the Diversification of Electoral Strategies

Explores how non-policy resources, including administrative competence, patronage, and activists' networks, shape both electoral results and which voters get what.

Ernesto Calvo (Author), Maria Victoria Murillo (Author)

9781108739405, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 February 2019

310 pages, 31 b/w illus. 49 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'This complex and nuanced theory helps explain moderate party positions in Argentina and ideological differences in Chile. The level of analysis is impressive but requires readers to examine each part in detail. The summaries at the end of each chapter and the conclusion provide clear interpretations for those who are not familiar with the two countries or the types of statistical analyses.' M. L. Godwin, Choice

Calvo and Murillo consider the non-policy benefits that voters consider when deciding their vote. While parties advertise policies, they also deliver non-policy benefits in the form of competent economic management, constituency service, and patronage jobs. Different from much of the existing research, which focuses on the implementation of policy or on the delivery of clientelistic benefits, this book provides a unified view of how politicians deliver broad portfolios of policy and non-policy benefits to their constituency. The authors' theory shows how these non-policy resources also shape parties' ideological positions and which type of electoral offers they target to poorer or richer voters. With exhaustive empirical work, both qualitative and quantitative, the research documents how linkages between parties and voters shape the delivery of non-policy benefits in Argentina and Chile.

Prologue
1. Non-policy politics
2. A demand-side model of non-policy politics
3. Tracing political preferences and party organization in Argentina and Chile
4. Mapping voter preference in Argentina and Chile: 5. Party organization: how activists reach voters
6. Voters' preferences and Pparties' electoral offers
7. Party activists and their conditional effect on the vote
8. Targeting patronage in Argentina and Chile
9. Back to policy offers
10. Non-policy politics and electoral responsiveness
11. Appendices.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]