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Cultivating Effective Brokers: A Party Leader’s Dilemma

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  • Camp, Edwin

Abstract

Political machines dominate many electoral democracies. Scholars argue that local party members, commonly called brokers, are crucial to the success of machines. This article enhances our understanding of party machines by developing a formal model that reveals how leaders extract services from brokers. The model also shows that leaders of machines face a dilemma: they need effective brokers, but these brokers create vulnerabilities that can ultimately reduce the party’s vote share and even cause electoral loss. So, in addition to highlighting electoral strengths of political machines, this article reveals their organizational vulnerabilities. This argument is evaluated with a novel survey experiment from Argentina. The survey is the first to draw upon a probability sample of brokers in any country.

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  • Camp, Edwin, 2017. "Cultivating Effective Brokers: A Party Leader’s Dilemma," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 521-543, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:47:y:2017:i:03:p:521-543_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Gallego, Jorge & Guardado, Jenny & Wantchekon, Leonard, 2023. "Do gifts buy votes? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Gouvêa, Raphael & Girardi, Daniele, 2021. "Partisanship and local fiscal policy: Evidence from Brazilian cities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

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