(Un)Natural Disasters: Electoral Cycles in Disaster Relief. (June 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- (Un)Natural Disasters: Electoral Cycles in Disaster Relief. (June 2022)
- Main Title:
- (Un)Natural Disasters: Electoral Cycles in Disaster Relief
- Authors:
- Cooperman, Alicia
- Abstract:
- Emergency spending is often exempt from campaign period restrictions and procurement guidelines, making it attractive for opportunistic politicians, but natural disasters are seen as outside political business cycles. However, droughts are frequent but challenging to measure, so politicians can leverage discretion for electoral gain. This paper analyzes electoral cycles, term limits, and partisan targeting around municipal drought declaration in Northeast Brazil. Two sources of exogeneity (rainfall shocks, electoral calendar) isolate the effect of non-climatic factors on drought declarations. I find that drought declarations, which trigger relief, are more likely in mayoral election years. Incumbents are more likely to win re-election if they declare a drought in the election year, during below or even above average rainfall. The results are consistent with interviews suggesting voters reward competent mayors and mayors trade relief for votes. This study highlights the interaction between distributive and environmental politics, which has increasing consequences due to climate change.
- Is Part Of:
- Comparative political studies. Volume 55:Number 7(2022)
- Journal:
- Comparative political studies
- Issue:
- Volume 55:Number 7(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 55, Issue 7 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 7
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0055-0007-0000
- Page Start:
- 1158
- Page End:
- 1197
- Publication Date:
- 2022-06
- Subjects:
- elections -- public opinion -- voting behavior -- Latin American politics -- subnational politics -- natural disasters -- environmental politics
Political science -- Periodicals
320.05 - Journal URLs:
- http://cps.sagepub.com ↗
http://www.sagepublications.com/ ↗
http://firstsearch.oclc.org ↗
http://firstsearch.oclc.org/journal=0010-4140;screen=info;ECOIP ↗
http://www.umi.com/proquest ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/00104140211047410 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0010-4140
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 20697.xml