Clientelism and Voting Behavior: A Field Experiment in Benin∗

I conducted a field experiment in Benin to investigate the impact of clien-telism on voting behavior. In collaboration with four political parties involved in the 2001 presidential elections, clientelist and programmatic platforms were designed and run in twenty randomly selected villages of an average of 756 reg-istered voters. Even after controlling for ethnic affiliation, I find that clientelist platforms have significant effect on voting behavior. The effect was strongest for incumbent and for “local ” candidates. The evidence indicates that “national” candidates have comparative advantage over “local ” candidates on programme. In addition, the less clientelist is the platform of the “national ” opposition can-didate, the better is his electoral prospect among female voters