IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jpolrf/v29y2026i2p164-186.html

Painful reforms, punished incumbents: the politics of economic adjustment

Author

Listed:
  • Bernhard Reinsberg
  • M. Rodwan Abouharb

Abstract

We investigate the political fallout from economic reform programs and whether incumbent governments can soften the impact using social protection or scapegoating strategies. We test our arguments through a survey experiment in Pakistan and an analysis of World Values Surveys. The Pakistani experiment confirms that emphasizing the negative consequences of reform lowers incumbent support, while attempts to mitigate this backlash are ineffective. The cross-country data show that populations enduring harsher reform programs report lower satisfaction with national leaders. These findings inform economic voting theories in developing countries and policies regarding political backlash from IMF-backed adjustments.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhard Reinsberg & M. Rodwan Abouharb, 2026. "Painful reforms, punished incumbents: the politics of economic adjustment," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 164-186, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jpolrf:v:29:y:2026:i:2:p:164-186
    DOI: 10.1080/17487870.2026.2654637
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17487870.2026.2654637
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17487870.2026.2654637?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jpolrf:v:29:y:2026:i:2:p:164-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GPRE19 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.