Beyond Election-Time Targeting: Indian Slum Brokers Respond Without Ethnic Favoritism

Brokers cultivate client relationships through responsiveness beyond election cycles. This study explores broker preferences when evaluating client appeals outside of elections, testing theories that predict ethnic or partisan favoritism.

• Research Method: We employed a conjoint experiment with 629 Indian slum leaders and ethnographic fieldwork to assess broker decision-making criteria.
• Key Finding: Our results indicate brokers prioritize reputation management when deciding client responsiveness, rather than demonstrating strong ethnic or partisan bias in their day-to-day operations.

This research offers crucial insights into the nuanced dynamics of clientelism beyond electoral periods. It challenges assumptions that ethnic favoritism dominates distributive politics outside election cycles.