Most explanations of large interjurisdictional variations in policy outcomes in democracies are institutional
(e.g., the electoral rules of the game), informational (what citizens know about the effects of politician actions on their welfare), and societal (e.g., the extent of social polarization). Our evidence underlines the importance of a generally neglected factor: variations in voter attachment to political parties. These results have implications for several lines of research and for policy. The evidence indicates that evaluations of constituency development funds in nascent democracies of Africa and East Asia should take into account their effect on the development of programmatic political parties. On the one hand, the results here suggest that they will have less of an impact when voters are attached to political parties.On the other hand, they raise the possibility—although one that requires much more
investigation—that CDFs could slow the emergence of programmatic political parties.