Social Capital and Lobbying for Development Projects
33 Pages Posted: 13 Feb 2012
Date Written: November 1, 2011
Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that the link between social capital and government performance is about the policy responsiveness of government. I argue that social capital helps communities overcome collective action problems related to lobbying such that they can better express their desires for certain public goods and services to the government. Using data from a development project in Indonesia, I show that, in general, communities with more social capital are more likely to be selected as project participants across all levels of deservingness. Among the set of deserving communities, in particular, greater social capital corresponds to an increase in the probability of successful lobbying for access to new development resources.
Keywords: social capital, lobbying, distribution, development, Indonesia
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