Who Gets Bought? Vote Buying, Turnout Buying, and Other Strategies

During elections in many countries, political parties distribute particularistic benefits toindividuals. The existing literature reveals that parties choose from at least five distinctstrategies when distributing benefits, but fails to explain how parties allocate resourcesacross these strategies. Our formal model provides insight into this key question. Moststudies focus exclusively on "vote buying," a strategy by which parties reward voters forswitching their votes. Our model first shows how parties trade off between "vote buying"and "turnout buying," a strategy by which parties reward supporters for showing up at thepolls (Nichter 2008). We then show how parties combine these and other commonlyobserved strategies.