Yes, Minister: The Impact of Decision-making Rules on Geographically Targeted Particularistic Spending

Abstract

This article tests a theory to explain particularistic political spending not normally used on parliamentary systems. Using constituency-level data, we evaluate the merits of theories predicting whether parties reward their core voters or target floating or swing voters to maximise the party's electoral return. In order to bring new insights into the process of parliamentary pork in a system which incentivises garnering a personal vote, we introduce the decision-making rule (ministerial autonomy) as a variable and argue that the level of ministerial discretion in allocating funds coupled with the electoral system's incentives leads, in Ireland, to a form of distributive authoritarianism where the interests of ministers trump those of their party.