Over the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of subnational administrative units within developing countries. Existing literature argues that presidents create new units to deliver patronage to citizens. But proliferation at lower tiers of the state, that are too administratively distant from the president to credibly serve as patronage, does not follow this logic. We build from the premise that the creation of a new lower level unit comes with the appointment of a local administrator who develops a neopatrimonial relationship with the legislator whose constituency subsumes their jurisdiction. Presidents leverage this neopatrimonial relationship and create lower level units for copartisan legislators to ensure legislative support and prevent party defections. We find evidence supporting this argument using new data from Kenya. These findings illuminate how leaders can use administrative reform to undermine legislative checks against executive power.
ArriolaL. R. (2009). Patronage and political stability in Africa. Comparative Political Studies, 42, 1339-1362.
2.
ArriolaL. R. (2012). Multiethnic coalitions in Africa: Business financing of opposition election campaigns. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
3.
ArriolaL. R.ChoiD. D.DavisJ.RaknerL.SkageI.ThompsonM. (2016). Party building and politician defection in Zambia. Berkeley: University of California.
4.
AyeeJ. R. A. (2013). The political economy of the creation of districts in Ghana. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 48, 623-645.
5.
BaldwinK. (2013). Why vote with the chief? Political connections and public goods provision in Zambia. American Journal of Political Science, 57, 794-809.
6.
BatesR. H. (2008). When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
7.
BardhanP.MookherjeeD. (2006). Decentralisation and accountability in infrastructure delivery in developing countries. The Economic Journal, 116, 101-27.
8.
BarkanJ. D. (2008). Legislatures on the rise?Journal of Democracy, 19, 124-137.
9.
BohlkenA. T. (2016). Democratization from above: The logic of local democracy in the developing world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
10.
BooneC. (2003). Political topographies of the African state. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
11.
CottrellJ.GhaiY. (2007). Constitution making and democratization in Kenya (2000–2005). Democratization, 14, 1-25.
12.
de DiosE. S. (2007). The dynamics of regional development: The Philippines in East Asia. In BalisacanA. M.HillH. (Eds.), Local politics and local dynamics (pp. 127-173). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
13.
DesposatoS. W. (2005). Parties for rent? Ambition, ideology, and party switching in Brazil’s chamber of deputies. American Journal of Political Science, 50, 62-80.
14.
EatonK. (2004). Risky business: Decentralization from above in Chile and Uruguay. Comparative Politics, 37, 1-22.
15.
ElischerS. (2013). Political parties in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
16.
FalletiT. G. (2010). Decentralization and subnational politics in Latin America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17.
FiorinaM. P.NollR. G. (1978). Voters, bureaucrats and legislators: A rational choice perspective on the growth of bureaucracy. Journal of Public Economics, 9, 229-254.
GandhiJ. (2008). Political institutions under dictatorship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
20.
GandhiJ.PrzeworskiA. (2007). Authoritarian institutions and the survival of autocrats. Comparative Political Studies, 40, 1279-1301.
21.
GibsonE. L. (2010). Boundary control: Subnational authoritarianism in federal democracies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
22.
GreenE. (2010). Patronage, district creation, and reform in Uganda. Studies in Comparative International Development, 45, 83-103.
23.
GreeneK. F. (2009). Why dominant parties lose: Mexico’s democratization in comparative perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
24.
GrossmanG.LewisJ. (2014). Administrative unit proliferation. American Political Science Review, 108, 196-207.
25.
GrossmanG.PierskallaJ.DeanE. B. (2017). Government fragmentation and public goods provision. Journal of Politics, 79, 823–840.
26.
GulzarS.PasqualeB. (2017). Politicians, bureaucrats, and development: Evidence from India. American Political Science Review, 111, 162–183.
27.
HassanM. (2016). A state of change: District creation in Kenya after the return of multi-party elections. Political Research Quarterly, 69, 510-521.
28.
HornsbyC. (2011). Kenya: A history since independence. New York, NY: I.B. Tauris.
29.
HorowitzJ. (2015). The ethnic logic of campaign strategy in diverse societies: Theory and evidence from Kenya. Comparative Political Studies, 49, 324-356.
30.
KanyingaK. (2000). Mix and match party and persons. In RuttenM. M. E. M.MazruiA.GrignonF. (Eds.), Out for the count: The 1997 general elections and prospects for democracy in Kenya (Vol. 50, pp. 365-381). Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers.
31.
KasaraK. (2006, May). Ethnic beachheads and vote buying: The creation of new administrative districts in Kenya, 1963-2001 (Working paper). New York, NY: Columbia University.
32.
KellyC. L. (2015). Why (the proliferation of) parties? Competitive authoritarianism and party-building in Senegal. St. Louis, MO: Washington University in St. Louis.
33.
KimuraE. (2013). Political change and territoriality in Indonesia. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
34.
KitsheltH. (2000). Linkages between citizens and politicians in democratic politics. Comparative Political Studies, 33, 845-879.
35.
KoterD. (2013). King makers: Local leaders and ethnic politics in Africa. World Politics, 65, 187-232.
36.
LaaksoM.TaageperaR. (1979). “Effective” number of parties: A measure with application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies, 12, 3-27.
37.
LandryP. F. (2008). Decentralized authoritarianism in China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
38.
LeBasA. (2011). From protest to parties: Party-building & democratization in Africa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
39.
LewisJ. (2014). When decentralization leads to recentralization: Subnational state transformation in Uganda. Regional and Federal Studies, 24, 571-588.
40.
LynchG. (2011). I say to you: Ethnic politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
41.
MagaloniB. (2006). Voting for autocracy: Hegemonic party survival and its demise in Mexico. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
42.
MainwaringS. (1998). Party systems in the third wave. Journal of Democracy, 9(3), 67-81.
43.
MaleskyE. (2009). Gerrymandering—Vietnamese style: Escaping the partial reform equilibrium in a nondemocratic regime. The Journal of Politics, 71, 132-159.
44.
McAllisterI.WhiteS. (2000). Split ticket voting in the 1995 Russian Duma elections. Electoral Studies, 19, 563-576.
45.
MickeyR. (2015). Paths out of Dixie: The democratization of authoritarian enclaves in America’s Deep South, 1944–1972. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
46.
MonteroA. P.SamuelsD. J. (2004). Decentralization and democracy in Latin America. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
47.
O’DwyerC. (2006). Runaway state-building: Patronage politics and democratic development. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
48.
OlowuD. (2003). Local Institutional and Political Structures and Processes: Recent Experience in Africa. Public Administration and Development, 23, 41-53.
49.
OmbongiK. (2000). Gusii politics: An analysis of the 1997 elections. In RuttenM. M. E. M.MazruiA.GrignonF. (Eds.), Out for the count: The 1997 general elections and prospects for democracy in Kenya (pp. 471-494). Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers.
50.
O’NeillK. (2005). Decentralizing the state: Elections, parties, and local power in the Andes. Cambridge, UJK: Cambridge University Press.
51.
OpaloK. (2016). Institutions and legislative incumbency advantage: A regression discontinuity analysis of legislative elections in Africa. Washington, DC: Georgetown University.
52.
PierskallaJ. (2016). Splitting the difference? Elite competition and district creation in Indonesia. Comparative Politics, 48, 249-268.
53.
PiersonP. (2004). Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
54.
Prud’hommeR. (1995). The dangers of decentralization. World Bank Research Observer, 10, 201-220.
55.
RafflerP. (2016). Bureaucrats versus politicians: A field experiment on political oversight and local public service provision. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
56.
RiedlR. B. (2014). Authoritarian origins of democratic party systems in Africa. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
57.
Siti-NabihaA. K.SallehD. (2013). Public sector transformation in Malaysia: Improving local governance and accountability. In PomazalovaN. (Ed.), Public sector transformation processes and Internet public procurement (pp. 276-291). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
58.
SvolikM. W. (2012). The politics of authoritarian rule. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
59.
ThroupD.HornsbyC. (1998). Multi-party politics in Kenya: The Kenyatta & Moi states & the Triumph of the system in the 1992 election. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
60.
TreismanD. (2002). Defining and measuring decentralization: A global perspective. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.
61.
TreismanD. (2006). Fiscal decentralization, governance, and economic performance: A reconsideration. Economics & Politics, 18, 219-235.
62.
TsaiL. (2007). Solidary groups, informal accountability, and local public goods provision in rural China. American Political Science Review, 101, 355-372.
63.
Van de WalleN. (2001). African economies and the politics of permanent crisis, 1979-1999. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
64.
WidnerJ. A. (1992). The rise of a party-state in Kenya: From “Harambee!” to “Nyayo!”Berkeley: University of California Press.
65.
WilfahrtM. (2016). Clean water is not political (its personal): Citizen response to service provision in West Africa (Working paper). Northwestern University.
66.
WunschJ. S. (2001). Decentralization, local governance and “recentralization” in Africa. Public Administration and Development, 21, 277-288.
67.
ZiblattD. (2006). Structuring the state: The formation of Italy and Germany and the puzzle of federalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
