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Abstract
Based on reports on selected parliamentary by-elections from 2009 to 2015 and two presidential elections in 2011 and 2015 in Zambia, this paper examines the political rhetoric to determine the presence and nature of clientelism in Zambian electoral campaigns. Zambia’s three leading newspapers, The Post, Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail, were searched for reports of electoral campaigns. In total, 605 issues of each of the three newspapers spanning a period of 20 months were used. The paper concludes that a blend of vote buying and turnout buying were more evident in the campaign rhetoric in parliamentary by-elections than the presidential elections. Further, the ruling parties extended their clientelistic rhetoric to include perverse accountability.
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the insightful comments from three anonymous reviewers, which contributed to the final version of this paper.
Notes
1. Scott, “Corruption, Machine Politics.”
2. Wantchekon, “Clientelism and Voting Behaviour.”
3. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism.”
4. Ibid.
5. Bleck and Van de Walle, “Valence Issues in African Elections.”
6. Brinkerhoof and Goldsmith, “Clientelism, Patrimonialism and Democratic Governance.”
7. Ibid.
8. Hopkin, “Conceptualising Political Clientelism.”
9. Muno, “Conceptualising and Measuring Clientelism.”
10. Weghorst and Lindberg, “Effective Opposition Strategies.”
11. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism”; Lindberg, “It’s Our Time to Chop”; Lindberg and Morrison, “African Voters”; Young, “Is Clientelism at Work in African Elections?”
12. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism.”
13. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism”; Stokes, “Perverse Accountability”; Sungiyama and Hunter, “Whither Clientelism?”
14. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism.”
15. Nichter, “Vote Buying or Turnout Buying?”; Szwarcberg, “Political Clientelism.”
16. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism”; Stokes, “Perverse Accountability”; Sungiyama and Hunter, “Whither Clientelism?”; Wantchekon, “Clientelism and Voting Behaviour.”
17. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism.”
18. Nichter, “Vote Buying or Turnout Buying?”; Stokes, “Perverse Accountability.”
19. Van de Walle, “Democratization of Political Clientelism.”
20. Brusco et al., “Vote Buying in Argentina”; Sungiyama and Hunter, “Whither Clientelism?”; Wantchekon, “Clientelism and Voting Behaviour.”
21. Van de Walle, “Democratisation of Political Clientelism.”
22. Brusco et al., “Vote Buying in Argentina”; Wantchekon, “Clientelism and Voting Behaviour.”
23. Kochin and Kochin, “When Is Buying Votes Wrong?”
24. See Burnell, “Party System and Party Politics.”
25. Baylies and Szeftel, “Multi-Party Politics in Zambia,” 79; Sardanis, Zambia – The First 50 Years, 75.
26. Rakner and van de Walle, “Opposition weaknesses in Africa,” 108.
27. see Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave”; Schraeder, “Understanding the ‘Third Wave’ of Democratisation in Africa.”
28. Gans-Morse et al., “Varieties of Clientelism.”
29. See Basit, “Coding in Qualitative Data Analysis”; Chenail, “Conducting Qualitative Data Analysis”; Morgan, “Qualitative Content Analysis”; Thomas, “Analysing Qualitative Data.”
30. Commonwealth Observer Group Zambia General Elections 2011, “Interim Statement.”
31. See Sardanis, Zambia – The First 50 Years.
32. Stokes, “Perverse Accountability.”
33. Van de Walle, “Democracy and Clientelism in Africa.”
34. Arriola, “Patronage and Political Stability,” 1345.
35. Stokes, “Perverse Accountability”.
36. Ferree and Long, “Gifts, Threats and Perceptions.”
37. Wantchekon, “Clientelism and voting behaviour.”
38. Young, “Is Clientelism at work in African Elections?.”
39. Van de Walle, “Democracy and Clientelism in Africa.”
40. Van de Walle, “Path from Neopatrimonialism.”
41. Bleck and Van de Walle, “Valence Issues in African Elections.”