Motivation for Politicians

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 6 presents theoretical and empirical justifications and explanations of why politicians would enter an elite network type of relationship. They benefit in two ways: preserving their position of power through building small winning coalitions, and by directly or indirectly extracting rents. This is where elite network theory meets the selectorate theory and paints a complete picture of the motivation of political survival. Rents can come in the form of bribes and kickbacks to direct usurpation of office for private gain. The chapter concludes by presenting empirical findings linking corruption, in the form of rent-extraction, directly to re-election possibilities of politicians. The data is drawn from the case of Croatia, where corruption has been directly approximated using fraudulent procurement contracts.