The Demand for Social Welfare in Developing Democracies: Evidence from Malawi

• In Event: Political Economy in Africa

Abstract

There is now growing interest in the provision of social welfare in the context of developing countries. A key assumption is that democratization has catalyzed the salience of new groups of voters and diminished the utility of using clientelism or delivering club goods to build political support. However, these developments have not been tested empirically. To what extent do voters in developing countries support social welfare, and how do considerations of social welfare rank in comparison with other forms of political responsiveness? This paper uses a representative survey of Malawi, which in recent years has considered several major social welfare interventions such as pensions, health insurance, and cash transfers. The paper provides new descriptive information that documents uneven support for social welfare and continued strong backing for club goods. Variation in support for social welfare can be partially explained by regional differences in Malawi that coincide with historical patterns of socio-economic development. In addition, support for social welfare is conditional on partisan affiliation and processes of party branding that at times connect to specific social policies rather than individual-level factors. The findings reinforce the uneven incentives that elections provide in new democracies, especially in contexts of low levels of socio-economic development. Moreover, the findings suggest that the political use of social welfare in such contexts is elite-driven and at times tentative and exploratory rather than based on clear electoral support.

Author

• Yonatan L. Morse, University of Connecticut