Arun R Swamy | University of Guam (original) (raw)
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.
This paper examines the contribution that political coalitions built around delivering benefits t... more This paper examines the contribution that political coalitions built around delivering benefits to poorer citizens can play in building political support for reformist efforts at curtailing clientelism. These efforts range from traditional state-building projects to current attempts to introduce transparency and accountability. The common element to both is the reformer's need to undercut local patron-client networks and, in democratic settings, vote-buying and electoral machines. I show that a common strategy to doing this is to attempt a political strategy that I term a 'sandwich coalition.' Sandwich coalitions are formed when political actors occupying or seeking the apex of a political hierarchy undercut the power of middle level actors by championing the needs of politically excluded or marginalized actors further down. They can occur in both electoral and non-electoral settings and in a variety of social structures. The paper examines the use of sandwich coalitions in two Southeast Asian countries, Thailand and the Philippines, in which politics has been characterized by a continuing struggle between centralizing and oligarchic forces.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review 13 (1): 50-66, Jun 2013
This article addresses the influence of distributive conflict on democratic consolidation in Indi... more This article addresses the influence of distributive conflict on democratic consolidation in India, Thailand, and the Philippines by examining the conditions conducive to a political strategy that I term a "sandwich coalition." Sandwich coalitions are formed when political actors occupying or seeking the apex of a political hierarchy undercut the power of middle-level actors by championing the needs of politically excluded or marginalized actors further down. They can occur in both electoral and nonelectoral settings and in a variety of social structures. The article builds on previous work in which the author argued that successful sandwich coalitions can be conducive to democratic consolidation by giving poor voters a stake in electoral democracy and elites a relatively nonthreatening way to remain electorally viable. This article argues that institutional factors, rather than socioeconomic differences, are the most important determinant of whether sandwich coalitions are built successfully. Specifically, sandwich coalitions depend on the ability of leaders to build direct links to poor voters, by delivering benefits to them in exchange for electoral support. This suggests that a crucial limiting condition is the honest administration of elections. In India, sandwich coalitions were made possible by the colonial creation of an elite civil service that was able to administer elections impartially. In Thailand, this became possible after the 1997 reforms. In the Philippines, where decades of electoral reform efforts have focused their attention more on the monitoring of abuses by NGOs than by ensuring an effective permanent election administration, sandwich coalitions have been attempted but seldom last.
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.
The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility... more The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility of India's secular state. They highlight the inability of Indian democracy to combat what is essentially a fascist onslaught.
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.
This paper examines the contribution that political coalitions built around delivering benefits t... more This paper examines the contribution that political coalitions built around delivering benefits to poorer citizens can play in building political support for reformist efforts at curtailing clientelism. These efforts range from traditional state-building projects to current attempts to introduce transparency and accountability. The common element to both is the reformer's need to undercut local patron-client networks and, in democratic settings, vote-buying and electoral machines. I show that a common strategy to doing this is to attempt a political strategy that I term a 'sandwich coalition.' Sandwich coalitions are formed when political actors occupying or seeking the apex of a political hierarchy undercut the power of middle level actors by championing the needs of politically excluded or marginalized actors further down. They can occur in both electoral and non-electoral settings and in a variety of social structures. The paper examines the use of sandwich coalitions in two Southeast Asian countries, Thailand and the Philippines, in which politics has been characterized by a continuing struggle between centralizing and oligarchic forces.
Asia Pacific Social Science Review 13 (1): 50-66, Jun 2013
This article addresses the influence of distributive conflict on democratic consolidation in Indi... more This article addresses the influence of distributive conflict on democratic consolidation in India, Thailand, and the Philippines by examining the conditions conducive to a political strategy that I term a "sandwich coalition." Sandwich coalitions are formed when political actors occupying or seeking the apex of a political hierarchy undercut the power of middle-level actors by championing the needs of politically excluded or marginalized actors further down. They can occur in both electoral and nonelectoral settings and in a variety of social structures. The article builds on previous work in which the author argued that successful sandwich coalitions can be conducive to democratic consolidation by giving poor voters a stake in electoral democracy and elites a relatively nonthreatening way to remain electorally viable. This article argues that institutional factors, rather than socioeconomic differences, are the most important determinant of whether sandwich coalitions are built successfully. Specifically, sandwich coalitions depend on the ability of leaders to build direct links to poor voters, by delivering benefits to them in exchange for electoral support. This suggests that a crucial limiting condition is the honest administration of elections. In India, sandwich coalitions were made possible by the colonial creation of an elite civil service that was able to administer elections impartially. In Thailand, this became possible after the 1997 reforms. In the Philippines, where decades of electoral reform efforts have focused their attention more on the monitoring of abuses by NGOs than by ensuring an effective permanent election administration, sandwich coalitions have been attempted but seldom last.
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.
The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility... more The recent rounds of violence between religious groups in India do more than reveal the fragility of India's secular state. They highlight the inability of Indian democracy to combat what is essentially a fascist onslaught.
Asian Survey, XLII, 1, January/February, 2002
Asian Survey, XLI, 1, January/February 2001
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 49, No. 1., Apr 2008
The papers in this special issue are the product of a comparative interdisciplinary workshop on '... more The papers in this special issue are the product of a comparative interdisciplinary workshop on 'Natural Resources and Violent Ethnic Conflicts in the Asia Pacific Region' held in Honolulu, Hawaii, 18-20 March 2005. The workshop brought together scholars who study conflicts between ethnic groups and those who study conflicts over natural resource claims in order to examine the interplay of resources and ethnicity and to seek answers to the question of why violence occurs in some cases and not in others. Both sets of scholars agreed on some points but disagreed on others. They agreed that ethnic and resource grievances occur not so much out of objective deprivation but out of 'relative deprivation' when groups compare their situation with others, to the past, or to future expectations. They both stressed the role of democratic processes in alleviating resource competition and ethnic conflicts -but they did this in different ways. The perspectives and solutions offered by these papers sum to a deeper and more contextualised understanding of the cause of conflict and to mutually reinforcing solutions for resolving them.
Journal of Politics 70 (4), Oct 2008
Social scientists have a tendency to reinvent the wheel. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the study o... more Social scientists have a tendency to reinvent the wheel. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the study of ethnic conflict was of central concern to political scientists studying the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa. During this period the central line of contention was between the so-called "primordialsts" who took the roots of ethnic identities and loyalties to lie in pre-modern attachments -or "primordial sentiments" in the words of Geertz (1963) --and others who variously argued that the identities expressed through ethnic conflict were of modern construction, that the use of ethnic identities for political mobilization was instrumental, or both. 1 By the late 1970s the "primordialist" position had been discredited by an enormous quantity of scholarship, brilliantly synthesized in . With mammoth theory-building exercise there was no longer much question that ethnic identities were at least partly "constructed" or, more importantly, that ethnic mobilization was brought about by political entrepreneurs; the only remaining questions were how, under what circumstances and what one could do about this. 2 Yet, scarcely a decade later, the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia produced an outpouring of scholarship, most of it from disciplines and subdisciplines that had never engaged the question of ethnic conflict, which did not merely 1 Young (1993: 22-24) distinguishes among primordialists, instrumentalists (in which category he places his own early work) and constructivists, whom he associates with postmodernist approaches. In my view, the school I refer to below as political ethnology, of which Young is a pre-eminent example is both instrumentalists and constructivist, whereas the narrower rational choice approach is exclusively instrumentalist, in that it takes the existence of the ethnic group as a given. 2 Even those like Anthony Smith who continued to argue for the "ethnic origins of nations" held only that ethnic entrepreneurs were constrained by the historical and cultural materials available a view he correctly identifies as an intermediate one between "perennialists" and "modernists." (Smith 1986: 18)
and Pakistan over the state of Kashmir has become the cause of international concern. The stakes ... more and Pakistan over the state of Kashmir has become the cause of international concern. The stakes for these nuclear-armed rivals are high. Each views Kashmir as the validation of its national ideology; each fears that giving it up will result in serious domestic turmoil. Moreover, each country has plausible
We desire that those having an inferioriq complex should walk erect again.
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
The intensification of a long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan over the state of Kashm... more The intensification of a long-standing dispute between India and Pakistan over the state of Kashmir has become the cause of international concern. The stakes for these nuclear-armed rivals are high. Each views Kashmir as the validation of its national ideology; each fears that giving it up
Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per resp... more Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.
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
The workshop brought together scholars who study conflicts between ethnic groups and those who st... more The workshop brought together scholars who study conflicts between ethnic groups and those who study conflicts over natural resource claims in order to examine the interplay of resources and ethnicity and to seek answers to the question of why violence occurs in some cases and not in others. Both sets of scholars agreed on some points but disagreed on others. They agreed that ethnic and resource grievances occur not so much out of objective deprivation but out of 'relative deprivation' when groups compare their situation with others, to the past, or to future expectations. They both stressed the role of democratic processes in alleviating resource competition and ethnic conflicts-but they did this in different ways. The perspectives and solutions offered by these papers sum to a deeper and more contextualised understanding of the cause of conflict and to mutually reinforcing solutions for resolving them.
Journal of current Southeast Asian affairs, Apr 1, 2016
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.
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.