Harris, Adam S;
Meyer-Sahling, Jan-Hinrik;
Mikkelsen, Kim Sass;
Schuster, Christian;
(2023)
Activating the "Big Man": Social Status, Patronage Networks, and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies.
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
, 33
(1)
pp. 94-105.
10.1093/jopart/muac009.
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Abstract
Public service delivery by African states is often characterized as particularist, favoring ethnic, personal or political networks of those inside the state over universalist, pro-social services to citizens. One explanation for particularist service delivery focuses on societal patronage norms, with “Big Men” providing for members of their networks. Despite the prominence of this line of reasoning and the anecdotal prevalence of “Big Men” in politics and society, hardly any research has quantitatively assessed the effects of “big man” governance inside the state. Through a behavioral experiment with over 1,300 Ugandan bureaucrats, our article seeks to address this gap. In the experiment, we find that activating social status—that is, “big man” status—in bureaucrats embedded in patronage networks significantly curbs their pro-social behavior. Our article contributes an important empirical micro-foundation to help explain one cause of limited universal service delivery by bureaucrats.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Activating the "Big Man": Social Status, Patronage Networks, and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jopart/muac009 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac009 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Public Management Research Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144116 |
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