Is Local Development Good Politics? Local Development Expenditures and the Re-election of Governors in the Philippines for 1992, 1995 and 1998

Using a panel of incumbent provincial governors, this paper estimates the relative contributions of development spending and membership in local political clans to the likelihood of re-election of governors in the Philippines during the 1990s. The results suggest that governors, whether members of political clans or not, respond to local development needs to get re-elected. Further, it is not the presence of political clans per se, but rather the absence of effective electoral competition among clans, that seems inimical to development. Thus to ensure that local development becomes good politics, electoral reforms should be adopted to prevent capture of local governments under a fiscal decentralization program.