This project investigates the politically motivated targeting of poverty programs in Northeast Brazil, focusing on mayors in rural municipalities. This topic stands at the intersection between literature on distributive politics that is commanding central theoretical attention in political science and research on the politics of poverty in Northeast Brazil, the poorest area of Brazil and one of the most unequal regions of the world.
A wide body of literature vigorously debates how politicians target distributive benefits such as particularistic goods and infrastructure projects. Some scholars argue that they target core supporters while others contend they target swing voters. This project directly engages this debate, but also pursues a new research agenda on how mobilization affects the targeting of benefits.
Four questions are examined. When do mayors target core vs. swing voters as they allocate benefits, in order to influence the vote choices of individuals who already participate in elections? When are benefits distributed to induce the turnout of individuals who do not participate in elections? How do targeting strategies vary across different attributes of targetable goods? Do potential recipients believe that benefits are conditional on political support and trust?
These questions are answered through the use of 144 in-depth interviews of both municipal officials and the rural poor. The quantitative component, funded from other sources, uses official Brazilian data that remains untapped by social scientists for which among other things Global Positioning System technology is employed to map beneficiaries in over 380,000 electoral precincts. The econometric analysis of these data provides new leverage in understanding both distributive politics and clientelism. The qualitative data suggests hypotheses for quantitative tests and provides an ongoing check for the plausibility of quantitative findings.
This project deepens our udnerstanding of the politics of poverty reduction. It provides key information that can help policymakers improve poverty reduction program, and it engages a broader audience concerned with poverty reduction in Brazil and beyond.
