CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Stojkovska, Ivana |
|---|---|
| Title | It takes two to tango: critical voters and clientelistic efforts on the 'level playing field' |
| Summary | In light of the establishment of a universal ground for comparison of the perceptions of electoral malpractice, this study employs cross-national analysis in order to understand the role of voters’ critical reasoning as related to the clientelistic efforts of political elites on the electoral realm. It argues that the clientelistic efforts of political elites, are inextricably linked to voters’ responsiveness to the particularized offers, and are thus likely to be the object of the lack of critical nature of the latter. The reason in support of this argument is that in a clientelistic setting the relevance of the occurrences beyond the ‘level playing field’ is more likely to be undermined by the trade-off s between the voters as clients and the politicians as patrons that takes place in the electoral realm. Hence the perceptions of the electoral malpractice and the vote choice for the incumbent would be less likely to go beyond the sentiments regarding the particular clientelistic trade-offs, resulting with alignments among different segments of the electorate that are likely to spur the effectiveness of the clientelistic efforts , that recursively infringe upon the critical reasoning of the voters. This hypothesis, together with the alternative explanations on the alignment between the perception of electoral malpractice and the vote choice for the incumbent, is tested and confirmed on a new battery of questions including 20 countries with different levels of democratization. Despite the lack of linearity that the relationship takes, the various clustering of the countries goes in favor of the proposed pattern. Overall, the clientelistic efforts are found to be negatively related to the critical nature of the voters, as indicated by the magnitude of negative association between the vote choice for the incumbent as a function of the perception of electoral malpractice, which suggests a lack of the voters’ individual sense for effective connection to the general public, on political matters relevant for the legitimacy of the regime as whole. |
| Supervisor | Levente Littvay |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/stojkovska_ivana.pdf |
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