Beyond Vote-buying: Personalized Political Ties and Party Activists' Interpretations of Gift-giving in the 2013 Elections in Bamako
Abstract
This article examines what campaigning means in Bamako and what it revealed about the political game in the crisis context of the 2013–2014 elections. An observation of electoral mobi- lization highlights the ordinary conceptions and mundane practices that shape politics in Mali today and that haven’t changed much since the 2012 security and political crises. The paper shows how personal ties and the monetarization of social relations, which had been so much criticized by the 2012 coup’s leaders and (inter)national supports, did not stop feeding into electoral politics. However, they cannot be reduced to mere vote-buying or gift-giving. Indeed, the main argument is that these personalized political ties go far beyond electoral politics and spread throughout society as a whole and deeply into the social fabric. They have a prevailing role in political interactions in and out of electoral times that should not be overlooked. In order to grasp what is at stake, the paper draws an ethnographic focus on party members’ words and deeds, and their interactions with voters.