External validity captures the extent to which inferences drawn from a given study's sample
apply to a broader population or other target populations. Social scientists frequently invoke …

Research on clientelism often starts from a shared puzzle: How can clientelism be a viable
electoral strategy if voters can renege on their commitments to politicians? The standard …

We demonstrate the importance of politician social networks for electoral outcomes. Using
large-scale data on family networks from over 20 million individuals in 15,000 villages in the …

Why is vote buying effective even where ballot secrecy is protected? Most answers emerge
from models of machine politics, in which a machine holds recipients of handouts …

Two aspects of contemporary urban life in Africa are often described as sources of political
change: the emergence of a large urban middle class and high levels of ethnic diversity and …

African democracies are increasingly urban. While ethnicity is generally correlated with vote
choice, recent research suggests there may be less ethnic voting in cities. But I show that …

Despite the prevalence of vote buying in many develo** democracies, the evidence of its
persuasive effects is very limited. This article proposes a way to evaluate the electoral …

Seminal models of clientelism assert that parties value brokers for their strong downward
ties to voters. Despite its dominance, scholars have not empirically scrutinized key …

Vote-buying—or the pre-electoral distribution of private goods in exchange for support at the
ballot box—is often blamed for the poor economic performance of many develo** …

This paper considers the foundations of contemporary African urban economies and how
these intersect with the evolution of urban politics, carving a route through a wide range of …