“…In Argentina, for example, bureaucrats sympathetic to the Peronist party, an enduring political machine, attend rallies, canvas voters, and use government resources to cultivate voter loyalty (Auyero, 2001;Gonzalez-Ocantos & Oliveros, 2019;Oliveros, 2016Oliveros, , 2021Szwarcberg, 2015;Weitz-Shapiro, 2014). Studies from Romania and Bulgaria (Mares et al, 2018) as well as Colombia (Garcia Sanchez et al, 2015) also find that state employees perform political services for incumbents, brokering clientelistic exchanges. Given their discretionary power over the use of government resources-for example, aid, entitlements, or permits-combined with their access to citizens, bureaucrats are well-placed to act as brokers (Scott, 1972, 95).…”