Clientelism, Constituency Services, and Elections in Muslim Societies

Abstract

This chapter examines the prevalence and implications of clientelism and patronage in elections in Muslim societies. The authors use cross-national evidence to show that, while clientelism is common in the Muslim world, its presence is linked more to political and economic factors than to cultural attributes. They use case evidence from within the Arab world to examine the use of clientelism in practice, and find that this linkage strategy is especially advantageous for ruling parties, but also disadvantages poor and rural communities with its transactional nature and poor public goods provision. Finally, the authors argue that clientelism is not the only successful strategy for vote-seeking politicians, even in patronage-oriented settings, as political outsiders successfully use institutionalized constituency service to attract electoral support.