The Historical Development of Political Clientelism

Abstract

The Historical Development of Political Clientelism Political clientelism is a system of patronbroker-client ties and networks that dominate a society's politics and government. Social scientists have noted that this system reflects the changing structures of the state and society of which it is a part. When these structures change, so does clientelism. Eisenstadt and Roniger, for example, have remarked that new types of clientelism normally appear with new systems, and that their stability reflects the social setting. Lande notes that variations in patron-client relationships are the result of variations in the substructure to which they are attached. Brown has observed that vertical clientelist power relations have changed over time and in respect to the structure of the state. According to Schmidt, the literature on clientelism suggests that changes in clientage accompany changes in the larger society.1 How, then, can observers identify a system as political clientelism? Do its identifying characteristics change so much over time that it becomes unidentifiable as clientelism? This is the view

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