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Jonathan Phillips
Jonathan Phillips is a researcher in the political economy of governance. His research seeks to identify why poor sub-national societies have sometimes succeeded in replacing dysfunctional clientelist systems with more programmatic policymaking and rapid poverty reduction. That research has included fieldwork and household surveys in Bihar state, India; Jigawa state, Nigeria; and Cearâ state, Brazil. He recently graduated with a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University’s Department of Government and previously worked in Nigeria’s Federal Government to guide investments towards the Millennium Development Goals.
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Breaking the clientelist trap: Can reform create demand for good governance in Bihar?
How has over a decade of rapid and programmatic policy reform in Bihar affected voters? Based on a household survey comparing political attitudes of residents on either side of the Bihar-Jharkhand border, this column shows that Bihar’s policy reforms have raised voters’ expectations, but have not yet produced a fundamental change in their willingness to vote against clientelist politicians.
The Political Effects of Programmatic Development Policy: Can Bihar Break the Clientelist Trap?
This project aims to understand the conditions of supporting the continuation and expansion of programmatic governance in Bihar state. Bihar’s "clientelism trap" (incentives to return to clientelist governance) still threatens to stall the state’s remarkable institutional and growth progress. To understand the conditions under which this trap can be overcome – and programmatic politics becomes self-sustaining – the findings from the project generated evidences on how Bihari citizens’ relationship with government has changed after a decade of reform.