2026 Theses Doctoral

Local Candidate Selection in Patronage Democracies

Ong, Lionel W.

This dissertation is about how political parties select public service motivated candidates in patronage democracies. Using field interviews, a conjoint survey experiment, ethnographic observation, and administrative data in Sierra Leone, the findings challenge conventional wisdom about intraparty processes on candidate selection. Grassroots party delegates receive few illicit benefits from the fiscal resources extracted at the national government level.

This disproportionate distribution of private benefits shapes their demand for candidates who deliver public goods instead of private payoffs when they vote in party primaries for local council elections. They identify these candidates by observing costly pre-electoral behavior of voluntarily providing public services to their communities. These findings contribute new insights to theories of candidate selection and collective action.