Buying Loyalty of Voters Or Local Elites? Political Alignment and Transfers to Provinces in Tutelary Regimes: The Case of Iran

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of an electoral support for president for short-and long-term transfers between national and provincial governments in tutelary regimes. The research uses the case of Iran; the database covers 330 observations for 30/31 provinces for 2005-2015. The results show that Iranian presidents target short-term transfers for disloyal provincial elites, while longterm transfers do not show political connection with voting patterns. The results also allow for assuming that the key factor for the logic of distribution is a political competition.