Abstract

Political clientelism is often deemed to have perverse consequences for democratic accountability and representation. In this paper, we argue that economic vulnerability causes households to participate in clientelist exchanges. We test this hypothesis by implementing a randomized control trial of development intervention that reduces household vulnerability: the construction of residential water cisterns in drought prone areas of Northeast Brazil. Reduced vulnerability significantly decreases requests for private benefits from local politicians, especially among citizens more likely to participate in clientelist exchanges. Furthermore, we link program beneficiaries to electronic voting machine outcomes, and show that reduced vulnerability undermines the electoral performance of incumbent mayors, who tend to have more resources for clientelism. Our evidence points to a persistent reduction in clientelism, given that findings are observed not only during the election campaign but also a full year later.