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Sandwich Coalitions by Arun R Swamy
In: Chacko Chennattuserry, J., Deshpande, M., Hong, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore, 2023
One reason for the enduring confusion over populism as a concept is that it is informed by confli... more One reason for the enduring confusion over populism as a concept is that it is informed by conflicting exemplars. Consequently, there often a tension between conceptions of populism that emphasize its centripetal or centralizing character, informed by the rise of Caesar in the late republican Rome, and those that emphasize its centrifugal or decentralizing tendencies, informed by the exemplars of small property populism, from the nineteenthcentury US farmers' movement to twentiethcentury Poujadisme. Contemporary populisms come in both varieties.
Since poverty is often believed to be a root cause of clientelism, government policies to reduce ... more Since poverty is often believed to be a root cause of clientelism,
government policies to reduce poverty should also help to reduce clientelism. However, scholars studying clientelism are more likely to view social policy as a potential resource for clientelist politicians. This article examines this paradox in the Philippine context by offering a general framework to identify when social welfare policies are likely to reduce clientelism, and by applying this framework to the Philippines, focusing on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino conditional cash transfer programme, or Pantawid. I argue that the policies that are most likely to undercut clientelism are universal social protection policies that provide poor families with security, although these are the least acceptable to middle-class taxpayers. This is exemplified by the Philippines, which has tended to introduce social policies that increase the scope for clientelism by making discretionary allocation more likely, rather than policies that offer income security to the poor. The Pantawid programme attempts to overcome these problems by introducing a centralised targeting mechanism to identify beneficiaries and by guaranteeing the benefit to all eligible families, but like all conditional cash transfer programs falls short of guaranteed and universal social protection.
The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often req... more The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often require reformers to create alternate ways to meet the welfare concerns of poor voters on which political clientelism thrives. A common method to attempt this is to introduce centralized welfare policies that deliver goods directly to the poor, bypassing traditional clientelist structures. When successful, these policies create a direct link between central authorities and poor voters. The success of this method depends on the degree to which the welfare policies are designed to reduce the role of local political brokers in identifying beneficiaries. The paper will draw on the recent experiences of the Philippines to test this argument, examining the prospective impact of the 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer program and the Bottom Up Budgeting initiative in the Philippines on local vote buying structures.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review 13 (1): 50-66, Jun 2013
The chapter argues that two modes of political coalition-building, sandwich coalitions and anti-h... more The chapter argues that two modes of political coalition-building, sandwich coalitions and anti-hegemonic alliances, characterize Indian political mobilization efforts in the modern era. Both provide flexible templates for addressing multiple cleavages under conditions of social change, but sandwich coalitions have been dominant.
India Review, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 1-36., Apr 2003
The paper focuses on the Congress Party’s strategy toward distributive challenges to provide a ... more The paper focuses on the Congress Party’s strategy toward distributive challenges to provide a new explanation for the introduction of universal suffrage in India, the long dominance of the Congress Party and survival of democracy through repeated crises. Arguing against a conventional account which emphasizes the accommodative tradition of the Congress, I argue that it was the discovery by Congress elites that they could limit distributive concessions to challengers by championing even more marginalized groups that accounts for the long record of democratic competition in India. I term this approach to distributive politics “sandwich tactics” as it results in the characteristic coalition of the top and bottom of the social hierarchy and demonstrate that the Congress Party’s rhetoric, policies and coalitional patterns across different issue areas in two different time periods is consistent with this “sandwich tactic.”
Indian Party Politics by Arun R Swamy
A review of Indian politics in 2015 for East Asia Forum.
Analysis of results of 16th General Election in May 2014.
The year 2014 in review in India. For East Asia Forum.
Asian Survey, XLII, 1, January/February, 2002
In: Chacko Chennattuserry, J., Deshpande, M., Hong, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore, 2023
One reason for the enduring confusion over populism as a concept is that it is informed by confli... more One reason for the enduring confusion over populism as a concept is that it is informed by conflicting exemplars. Consequently, there often a tension between conceptions of populism that emphasize its centripetal or centralizing character, informed by the rise of Caesar in the late republican Rome, and those that emphasize its centrifugal or decentralizing tendencies, informed by the exemplars of small property populism, from the nineteenthcentury US farmers' movement to twentiethcentury Poujadisme. Contemporary populisms come in both varieties.
Since poverty is often believed to be a root cause of clientelism, government policies to reduce ... more Since poverty is often believed to be a root cause of clientelism,
government policies to reduce poverty should also help to reduce clientelism. However, scholars studying clientelism are more likely to view social policy as a potential resource for clientelist politicians. This article examines this paradox in the Philippine context by offering a general framework to identify when social welfare policies are likely to reduce clientelism, and by applying this framework to the Philippines, focusing on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino conditional cash transfer programme, or Pantawid. I argue that the policies that are most likely to undercut clientelism are universal social protection policies that provide poor families with security, although these are the least acceptable to middle-class taxpayers. This is exemplified by the Philippines, which has tended to introduce social policies that increase the scope for clientelism by making discretionary allocation more likely, rather than policies that offer income security to the poor. The Pantawid programme attempts to overcome these problems by introducing a centralised targeting mechanism to identify beneficiaries and by guaranteeing the benefit to all eligible families, but like all conditional cash transfer programs falls short of guaranteed and universal social protection.
The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often req... more The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often require reformers to create alternate ways to meet the welfare concerns of poor voters on which political clientelism thrives. A common method to attempt this is to introduce centralized welfare policies that deliver goods directly to the poor, bypassing traditional clientelist structures. When successful, these policies create a direct link between central authorities and poor voters. The success of this method depends on the degree to which the welfare policies are designed to reduce the role of local political brokers in identifying beneficiaries. The paper will draw on the recent experiences of the Philippines to test this argument, examining the prospective impact of the 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer program and the Bottom Up Budgeting initiative in the Philippines on local vote buying structures.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review 13 (1): 50-66, Jun 2013
The chapter argues that two modes of political coalition-building, sandwich coalitions and anti-h... more The chapter argues that two modes of political coalition-building, sandwich coalitions and anti-hegemonic alliances, characterize Indian political mobilization efforts in the modern era. Both provide flexible templates for addressing multiple cleavages under conditions of social change, but sandwich coalitions have been dominant.
India Review, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 1-36., Apr 2003
The paper focuses on the Congress Party’s strategy toward distributive challenges to provide a ... more The paper focuses on the Congress Party’s strategy toward distributive challenges to provide a new explanation for the introduction of universal suffrage in India, the long dominance of the Congress Party and survival of democracy through repeated crises. Arguing against a conventional account which emphasizes the accommodative tradition of the Congress, I argue that it was the discovery by Congress elites that they could limit distributive concessions to challengers by championing even more marginalized groups that accounts for the long record of democratic competition in India. I term this approach to distributive politics “sandwich tactics” as it results in the characteristic coalition of the top and bottom of the social hierarchy and demonstrate that the Congress Party’s rhetoric, policies and coalitional patterns across different issue areas in two different time periods is consistent with this “sandwich tactic.”
A review of Indian politics in 2015 for East Asia Forum.
Analysis of results of 16th General Election in May 2014.
The year 2014 in review in India. For East Asia Forum.
Asian Survey, XLII, 1, January/February, 2002
Asian Survey, XLI, 1, January/February 2001
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 49, No. 1., Apr 2008
Journal of Politics 70 (4), Oct 2008
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Nov 26, 2004
. East-West Wire, Honolulu, May 14, 2004
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Jan 6, 2004
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Dec 17, 2003
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Jun 28, 2003
International Herald Tribune, October 18, 2002. , Oct 18, 2002
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Sep 8, 2002
International Herald Tribune, Jun 8, 2002
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Mar 12, 2002
International Herald Tribune, Dec 26, 2001
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Dec 3, 2001
International Herald Tribune, Oct 8, 2001
. East-West Wire, Honolulu, Oct 1, 2001
East-West Wire, Honolulu, Jul 13, 2001
Journal of current Southeast Asian affairs, Mar 30, 2021
Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attri... more Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https:// creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by/ 4. 0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https:// us. sagepub. com/ enus/ nam/ openaccessatsage). Book Review Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs
Social Science Research Network, 2014
The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often req... more The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often require reformers to create alternate ways to meet the welfare concerns of poor voters on which political clientelism thrives. A common method to attempt this is to introduce centralized welfare policies that deliver goods directly to the poor, bypassing traditional clientelist structures. When successful, these policies create a direct link between central authorities and poor voters. The success of this method depends on the degree to which the welfare policies are designed to reduce the role of local political brokers in identifying beneficiaries. The paper will draw on the recent experiences of the Philippines and Thailand to test this argument, examining the impact of Village Funds in Thailand and the 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer program in the Philippines on local vote buying structures.
Asia-pacific Social Science Review, 2013
Asia Pacific Issues, Nov 1, 2001
Stanford University Press eBooks, Nov 22, 2002
Asian Survey, 2002
... Later in the year, though, the government accused Tehelka of fabricating evidence and began t... more ... Later in the year, though, the government accused Tehelka of fabricating evidence and began to investigate the online newspaper. ... The actual effect of these rulings was unclear, but the court's legis-lative activism in many ways mirrored the elected branches' legislative paral ...
Asian Survey, 2001
... However, several Tamil Nadu parties in the BJP coalition made controversial statements in sup... more ... However, several Tamil Nadu parties in the BJP coalition made controversial statements in support of the LTTE and de-manded that India not support the Sri Lankan army. The Indian government compromised by offering humanitarian assistance but not military aid. ...
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Apr 1, 2008
Journal of current Southeast Asian affairs, Apr 1, 2016
For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/</a
For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/</a
India Review, Apr 1, 2003
Page 1. Consolidating Democracy by Containing Distribution: Sandwich Tactics in Indian Political ... more Page 1. Consolidating Democracy by Containing Distribution: Sandwich Tactics in Indian Political Development, 1936 96 ARUN R. SWAMY Most wealthy countries are democratic, and most democratic countries India is the most dramatic exception are wealthy. ...
Asian Security Order, 2002
Public Choice: Analysis of Collective Decision-Making eJournal, 2014
The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often req... more The paper argues that successful efforts to combat vote-buying and electoral corruption often require reformers to create alternate ways to meet the welfare concerns of poor voters on which political clientelism thrives. A common method to attempt this is to introduce centralized welfare policies that deliver goods directly to the poor, bypassing traditional clientelist structures. When successful, these policies create a direct link between central authorities and poor voters. The success of this method depends on the degree to which the welfare policies are designed to reduce the role of local political brokers in identifying beneficiaries. The paper will draw on the recent experiences of the Philippines and Thailand to test this argument, examining the impact of Village Funds in Thailand and the 4Ps Conditional Cash Transfer program in the Philippines on local vote buying structures.