This article challenges the common view of state job distribution by revealing how it serves primarily as a tool for political financing.

Data & Methods: Leveraging rich datasets from Benin and Ghana—including minister biographies, bureaucrat surveys, administrative records, and elite interviews—provides unprecedented insights.

Key Argument: Leaders strategically manage jobs to extract state resources directly or delegate this extraction through party elites and bureaucrats.

Findings: Whether leaders personally pocket funds, channel them via agents, or coerce officials for diversion shapes job allocation patterns significantly. Jobs function differently than other clientelistic rewards due to their connection with continuous financial control rather than isolated exchanges.

Implications: The analysis demonstrates that the perception of clientelism must evolve beyond simplistic transaction models.