Clientelism as Strategy

Political clientelism and patronage are widely diffused phenomena spanning across time and space and touching virtually all political systems in which votes count for something. In Europe, political clientelism and patronage are commonly considered as phenomena typical of only some countries, normally the Latin or Mediterranean countries. The ascription of clientelism and patronage to given geographical areas goes hand in hand with their attribution to the cultural traits that supposedly uniquely characterize these countries, such as familism, tribalism, clannism, “orientalism.” Political clientelism and patronage are, thus, generally understood as cultural phenomena: as the reflection onto the political sphere of a generalized way of conceiving interpersonal relations, particularly those between the powerful and the powerless. Alternatively, they are blamed on the distorted or incomplete development of given political systems. According to this second view, lasting marks were impressed early on onto the system of political representation of these countries – an imprint which even today affects the way in which interests are represented and promoted in these polities. For both the culturalist and the developmentalist approach, then, clientelism and patronage are structural features of given polities, which therefore explains their resilience even in the face of momentous social and political transformations.

This book, rather, starts from the assumption that clientelism and patronage are strategies for the acquisition, maintenance, and aggrandizement of political power, on the part of the patrons, and strategies for the protection and promotion of their interests, on the part of the clients, and that their deployment is driven by given sets of incentives and disincentives.