Legitimacy buying: the dynamics of clientelism in the face of legitimacy challenges

Although elections have become the norm not only in democratic regimes but also in autocratic ones, the legitimacy of the electoral process in different countries is often contested. Facing strong international pressures to prove democratic credentials, eventual winners have a strong incentive to ensure high levels of voter turnout. Conversely, leaders of parties likely to lose the election have an incentive to reduce turnout—for example, through boycotts—to delegitimize the election. In such situations, turnout is a major dimension of competition. To overcome the potential delegitimizing effects of low turnout, incumbents will often turn toward clientelistic mobilization, as high turnout can be a powerful rejoinder to those who denounce elections as a sham and can put observers’ concerns about the legitimacy of the electoral process to rest. We develop a theory to explain how such campaigns will target particularistic benefits. We argue that what we term “legitimacy buying” will be primarily aimed at “staunching the bleeding” of supporters who are usually consistent voters but have doubts about the legitimacy of the election. This theoretical prediction departs from theories used to explain vote buying in contexts in which the legitimacy of the elections is largely uncontested by significant groups in society. The theory is supported by data from a list experiment on vote buying conducted after the Honduran 2009 elections, which occurred in the wake of President Zelaya’s ousting and in the midst of a boycott promoted by his supporters

Hipparcos and map studies of the triple star π Cephei

We reexamine the visual and radial velocity data for the π Cephei triple star system and derive the masses of the three components. Our study is based upon the analysis of Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometric Data (IAD) measurements obtained with the red light Thaw refractor's Multichannel Astrometric Photometer (Thaw/MAP) and positions obtained from photographic plates acquired with the Thaw refractor's original photographic objective. The weighted mean parallax of the star system is now 13.8 ± 0.41 mas, corresponding to a distance modulus of 4.30 ± 0.065, yielding absolute visual magnitudes of 0.24 ± 0.065 and 2.50 ± 0.070 for the A and B components, respectively, and a total system mass of 8.81 ± 0.87 M⊙. The 58 yr span of the plate collection makes possible the first detection of the photocentric motion caused by the 160 yr orbit of π Cep A/B yielding masses of 6.88 ± 0.69 M⊙ and 1.93 ± 0.23 M⊙, respectively, for the central spectroscopic giant binary star and the late A secondary component. Although of shorter time span, the higher precision of the IAD and Thaw/MAP data allow the first detection of the astrometric motion caused by the spectroscopic companion of the A component. A comparison of the astrometric, spectroscopic, and photometric studies of the π Cep suggests that the spectroscopic binary is composed of a pair of red giants with similar masses, Aa = 3.63 ± 0.53 M⊙, Ab = 3.27 ± 0.48 M⊙, and a red magnitude difference of approximately 1.7 mag. The importance of long-term astrometric coverage is pointed out by the fact that the motion of both the A/B system and Aa/Ab system were missed during the compilation of the Hipparcos catalog and are only revealed in those data after their detection in the MAP/Thaw measurements.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Hipparcos and MAP Studies of the Triple Star ?Cephei

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe