Leadership, Community Ties, and Participation of the Poor : Evidence from Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia

Jöst, Prisca; Lust, Ellen

Leadership, Community Ties, and Participation of the Poor : Evidence from Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia

Files

There are no files associated with this item.

Date

2022

Authors

Jöst, Prisca

Lust, Ellen

Series

Program on Governance and Local Development Working Paper; No. 55

Publication type

Working Paper/Technical Report

Publication status

Published

Abstract

Research on public goods provision in Africa suggests that local leaders’ ability to mobilize the poor varies with the nature of the community. Yet there remains uncertainty about why local leaders are better in mobilizing the poor in some communities than others. In this paper, we address this question. We examine the relationship between the social density of local communities, the social proximity of authority figures to these communities (local or distant leadership), and leaders’ ability to mobilize the poor to contribute to educational and burial funds, or vote for an endorsed candidate. To do so, we employ a conjoint experiment and utilize observational data from an original survey fielded in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. We find that the poor respond more to neighbors and local leaders than to distant leaders, and that the social density of communities moderates this relationship. Moreover, examining the mechanisms, we find that the fear of sanctions or expected rewards, and the desire to bandwagon with others in the community appear to drive mobilization. These findings extend our understanding of how leadership and social ties facilitate mobilization, particularly among the poor.

Subject (DDC)

320 Politics

Keywords

Local Authorities, Community Participation, Social Density, Poverty, Sub- Saharan Africa, Mobilization

Cite This

ISO 690

JÖST, Prisca, Ellen LUST, 2022. Leadership, Community Ties, and Participation of the Poor : Evidence from Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. Available under: doi: 10.2139/ssrn.4046628

BibTex

@techreport{Jost2022Leade-57101,
  year={2022},
  doi={10.2139/ssrn.4046628},
  series={Program on Governance and Local Development Working Paper},
  title={Leadership, Community Ties, and Participation of the Poor : Evidence from Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia},
  number={No. 55},
  author={Jöst, Prisca and Lust, Ellen}
}

RDF

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/57101">
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <dc:creator>Lust, Ellen</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>terms-of-use</dc:rights>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-03-30T14:02:35Z</dcterms:available>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Research on public goods provision in Africa suggests that local leaders’ ability to mobilize the poor varies with the nature of the community. Yet there remains uncertainty about why local leaders are better in mobilizing the poor in some communities than others. In this paper, we address this question. We examine the relationship between the social density of local communities, the social proximity of authority figures to these communities (local or distant leadership), and leaders’ ability to mobilize the poor to contribute to educational and burial funds, or vote for an endorsed candidate. To do so, we employ a conjoint experiment and utilize observational data from an original survey fielded in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. We find that the poor respond more to neighbors and local leaders than to distant leaders, and that the social density of communities moderates this relationship. Moreover, examining the mechanisms, we find that the fear of sanctions or expected rewards, and the desire to bandwagon with others in the community appear to drive mobilization. These findings extend our understanding of how leadership and social ties facilitate mobilization, particularly among the poor.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/57101"/>
    <dc:contributor>Jöst, Prisca</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:title>Leadership, Community Ties, and Participation of the Poor : Evidence from Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia</dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/"/>
    <dcterms:issued>2022</dcterms:issued>
    <dc:creator>Jöst, Prisca</dc:creator>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-03-30T14:02:35Z</dc:date>
    <dc:contributor>Lust, Ellen</dc:contributor>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Bibliography of Konstanz

Yes