Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T19:12:18.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Vote Buying or Turnout Buying? Machine Politics and the Secret Ballot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2008

SIMEON NICHTER
SIMEON NICHTER*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
*
Simeon Nichter is Ph.D. candidate, Travers Department of Political Science, 210 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1950 ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars typically understand vote buying as offering particularistic benefits in exchange for vote choices. This depiction of vote buying presents a puzzle: with the secret ballot, what prevents individuals from accepting rewards and then voting as they wish? An alternative explanation, which I term “turnout buying,” suggests why parties might offer rewards even if they cannot monitor vote choices. By rewarding unmobilized supporters for showing up at the polls, parties can activate their passive constituencies. Because turnout buying targets supporters, it only requires monitoring whether individuals vote. Much of what scholars interpret as vote buying may actually be turnout buying. Reward targeting helps to distinguish between these strategies. Whereas Stokes's vote-buying model predicts that parties target moderate opposers, a model of turnout buying predicts that they target strong supporters. Although the two strategies coexist, empirical tests suggest that Argentine survey data in Stokes 2005 are more consistent with turnout buying.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 102 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 19 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Auyero, Javier. 2000. “The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account.” Latin American Research Review 35 (October): 55–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brusco, Valeria, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Stokes, Susan C.. 2004. “Vote Buying in Argentina.” Latin American Research Review 39 (2): 66–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canton, Darío, and Jorrat, Jorge Raúl. 2003. “Abstention in Argentine Presidential Elections, 1983–1999.” Latin American Research Review 38 (February): 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W. 2006. Swing Voters, Core Voters and Distributive Politics. Paper presented at the Conference on Representation and Popular Rule, Yale University.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and Kousser, J. Morgan. 1981. “Turnout and Rural Corruption—New York as a Test Case.” American Journal of Political Science 25 (November): 646–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1986. “Electoral Politics as a Redistributive Game.” Journal of Politics 48 (May): 370–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto, Estévez, Federico, and Magaloni, Beatriz. Forthcoming. Poverty, Vote-Buying and Democracy.Google Scholar
Dixit, Avinash, and Londregan, John. 1996. “The Determinants of Success of Special Interests in Redistributive Politics.” Journal of Politics 58 (November): 1132–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederic, C. Schaffer, ed. 2007. Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., and Shachar, Ron. 2003. “Voting May be Habit Forming: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (August): 540–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasen, Richard L. 2000. “Vote Buying.” California Law Review 88 (October): 1323–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckelman, Jac C. 1998. “Bribing Voters Without Verification.” Social Science Journal 35 (3): 435–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicken, Allen. 2002. “The Market for Votes in Thailand.” Paper presented at the Comparative Politics of Vote Buying Conference at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Center for International Studies, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). 2006. Voter Turnout Website (http://www.idea.int/vt).Google Scholar
Karlan, Pamela S. 1994. “Not by Money But by Virtue Won? Vote Trafficking and the Voting-Rights System.” Virginia Law Review 80 (November): 1455–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehoucq, Fabrice E. 2007. “When Does a Market for Votes Emerge? Historical and Theoretical Perspectives.” In Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying, ed. Schaffer, Frederic C.. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven. 2003. “From Labor Politics to Machine Politics: The Transformation of Party-Union Linkages in Argentine Peronism, 1983–1999.” Latin American Research Review 38 (October): 3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindbeck, Assar, and Weibull, Jorgen W.. 1987. “Balanced-Budget Redistribution as the Outcome of Political Competition.” Public Choice 52 (January): 273–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministerio del Interior. 2006. http://www.mininterior.gov.ar.Google Scholar
Schaffer, Frederic C., and Schedler, Andreas. 2007. “What is Vote Buying?” In Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying, ed. Schaffer, Frederic C.. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, Susan C. 2005. “Perverse Accountability: A Formal Model of Machine Politics with Evidence from Argentina.” American Political Science Review 99 (August): 315–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitullo, Gabriel E. 2002. “Participación Electoral, Comportamiento Político y Desestructuracíon Social en Argentina y Brasil.” Typescript.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.