Patrimonialism

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Patrimonialism is a form of governance in which all power flows directly from the ruler. There is no distinction between the public and private domains. These regimes are autocratic or oligarchic and exclude the lower, middle and upper classes from power. The leaders of these countries typically enjoy absolute personal power. Usually, the armies of these countries are loyal to the leader, not the state.

Contents

Various definitions

Max Weber

Julia Adams, states: "In Weber's Economy and Society , patrimonialism mainly refers to forms of government that are based on rulers' family-households. The ruler's authority is personal-familial, and the mechanics of the household are the model for political administration. The concept of patrimonialism captures a distinctive style of regulation and administration that contrasts with Weber's ideal-typical rational-legal bureaucracy". She states that Weber has used patrimonialism to describe, among other systems, "estatist[ clarification needed ] and absolutist politics of early modern Europe". For Weber, patriarchy is at the centre of patrimonalism and is its model and origin. [1]

Nathan Quimpo

Nathan Quimpo defines patrimonialism as "a type of rule in which the ruler does not distinguish between personal and public patrimony and treats matters and resources of state as his personal affair." [2]

Richard Pipes

Richard Pipes, a historian and Professor Emeritus of Russian history at Harvard University defines patrimonial as "a regime where the rights of sovereignty and those of ownership blend to the point of being indistinguishable, and political power is exercised in the same manner as economic power." [3]

J. I. Bakker

J. I. Bakker, a sociologist at the University of Guelph, states: [4]

The key focus in the model [patrimonialism] is the extent to which legitimate authority is based primarily on personal power exercised by the ruler, either directly or indirectly. The ruler may act alone or as a member of a powerful elite group or oligarchy. The ruler is not viewed as a tyrant. The structure of the Roman Catholic Church today is still patrimonial. Direct rule involves the ruler and a few key members of the ruler's household or staff maintaining personal control over every aspect of governance. If rule is indirect, there may be an intellectual or moral elite of priests or office holders as well as a military. The priestly group may invoke deity for the leader. The king, sultan, maharaja or other ruler is able to make independent decisions on an ad hoc basis, with little if any checks and balances. No individual or group is powerful enough to oppose the ruler consistently without, in turn, becoming the new patrimonial ruler. The ruler is recognized as the chief landholder and, in the extreme case, all of the land and its people are his domain. The legal authority of the ruler is largely unchallenged; there is no recognized body of case law or formal law, but there may be notions of etiquette and honor.

Francis Fukuyama

In his The Origins of Political Order , Francis Fukuyama states on the matter:

Natural human sociability is built around two principles, kin selection and reciprocal altruism. The principle of kin selection or inclusive fitness states that human beings will act altruistically toward genetic relatives (or individuals believed to be genetic relatives) in rough proportion to their shared genes. The principle of reciprocal altruism says that human beings will tend to develop relationships of mutual benefit or mutual harm as they interact with other individuals over time. Reciprocal altruism, unlike kin selection, does not depend on genetic relatedness; it does, however, depend on repeated, direct personal interaction and the trust relationships generated out of such interactions. These forms of social cooperation are the default ways human beings interact in the absence of incentives to adhere to other, more impersonal institutions. When impersonal institutions decay, these are the forms of cooperation that always reemerge because they are natural to human beings. What I have labeled patrimonialism is political recruitment based on either of these two principles. Thus, when bureaucratic offices were filled with the kinsmen of rulers at the end of the Han Dynasty in China, when the Janissaries wanted their sons to enter the corps, or when offices were sold as heritable property in ancien regime France, a natural patrimonial principle was simply reasserting itself. [5]

Examples

Richard Pipes cited the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Attalids of Pergamon as early patrimonial monarchies, both successor states to Alexander the Great's empire. [6]

Pipes argues that the Russia between the twelfth and seventeenth century, and with certain modifications until 1917, was a patrimonial system. [7]

Jean Bodin described seigneurial monarchies in the Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576–1586), where the monarch owns all the land. He claimed that Turkey and Muscovy were the only European examples. [8]

Indonesia, before and during the Suharto administration, is often cited as being patrimonial in its political-economy. [9] [10]

Randall Collins argued, based on Max Weber's definition, that organized crime groups like gangs and mafia are patrimonial political organizations, as contrasted with the bureaucratic nature of modern states. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altruism</span> Principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others

Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Fukuyama</span> American political scientist, political economist, and author

Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar, and writer.

Oligarchy is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kleptocracy</span> Form of government

Kleptocracy, also referred to as thievocracy, is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to expropriate the wealth of the people and land they govern, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population. One feature of political-based socioeconomic thievery is that there is often no public announcement explaining or apologizing for misappropriations, nor any legal charges or punishment levied against the offenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kin selection</span> Evolutionary strategy favoring relatives

Kin selection is a process whereby natural selection favours a trait due to its positive effects on the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even when at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Kin selection can lead to the evolution of altruistic behaviour. It is related to inclusive fitness, which combines the number of offspring produced with the number an individual can ensure the production of by supporting others. A broader definition of kin selection includes selection acting on interactions between individuals who share a gene of interest even if the gene is not shared due to common ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Authority</span> Legitimate power to decide or authorize

Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, authority may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, each of which has authority and is an authority. The term "authority" has many nuances and distinctions within various academic fields ranging from sociology to political science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureaucrat</span> Member of a bureaucracy

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group selection</span> Proposed mechanism of evolution

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional authority</span> Leadership with authority tied to tradition

Traditional authority is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a regime is largely tied to tradition or custom. Reasons for the given state of affairs include belief that tradition is inherently valuable and a more general appeal to tradition.

The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) distinguished three ideal types of legitimate political leadership/domination/authority . He wrote about these three types of domination both in his essay "The Three Types of Legitimate Rule", which was published in his 1921 masterwork Economy and Society, and in his classic 1919 speech "Politics as a Vocation" :

  1. charismatic authority,
  2. traditional authority and
  3. rational-legal authority.

In cultural anthropology, reciprocity refers to the non-market exchange of goods or labour ranging from direct barter to forms of gift exchange where a return is eventually expected as in the exchange of birthday gifts. It is thus distinct from the true gift, where no return is expected.

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Neopatrimonialism is a system of social hierarchy where patrons use state resources to secure the loyalty of clients in the general population. It is an informal patron–client relationship that can reach from very high up in state structures down to individuals in small villages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helping behavior</span> Voluntarily prosocial behaviour

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Tsarist autocracy[a], also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy localised with the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire.[b] In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and wealth, with more power than constitutional monarchs counterbalanced by legislative authority, as well as a more religious authority than Western monarchs. The institution originated during the time of Ivan III (1462−1505) and was abolished after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureaucracy</span> Administrative system governing any large institution

Bureaucracy is a system of organization where decisions are made by a body of non-elected officials. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions is an example of bureaucracy, as is any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, including corporations, societies, nonprofit organisations, and clubs.

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Political scientists have created typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritarian" states.

<i>The Origins of Political Order</i> 2011 book by Francis Fukuyama

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman times to the French Revolution is a 2011 book by political economist Francis Fukuyama. The main thesis of the book covers three main components that gives rise to a stable political order in a state: the state needs to be modern and strong, to obey the rule of law governing the state and be accountable. This theory is argued by applying comparative political history to develop a theory of the stability of a political system. The book covers several regions, and uses case studies of political developments from these regions, the scope is wide and consists of ancient history to the early modern period. Fukuyama refers to Amartya Sen's view that democracy remains the default political condition. Though not universally accepted as a form of government, even autocratic leaders have maintained semblance of democracy for legitimisation of their rule and use of media for their projection as democratic leaders. However, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan challenges the assumption as there is no default reset to democracy once the sitting governments or leaders are removed.

<i>Political Order and Political Decay</i> 2014 book by Francis Fukuyama

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy is a 2014 book by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama. The book follows Fukuyama's 2011 book, The Origins of Political Order, written to shed light on political institutions and their development in different regions.

Reciprocal altruism in humans refers to an individual behavior that gives benefit conditionally upon receiving a returned benefit, which draws on the economic concept – ″gains in trade″. Human reciprocal altruism would include the following behaviors : helping patients, the wounded, and the others when they are in crisis; sharing food, implement, knowledge.

References

  1. Adams, Julia (2005). "The Rule of the Father: Patriarchy and Patrimonialism in Early Modern Europe" (PDF). Max Weber's Economy and society: a critical companion. Charles Camic, Philip S. Gorski, David M. Trubek. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN   0-8047-4716-4. OCLC   54952945.
  2. Quimpo, Nathan Gilbert (January–March 2007). "Trapo Parties and Corruption". KASAMA. 21 (1): 2 via Solidarity Philippines Australia Network.
  3. Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 22
  4. Bakker, Johannes Iemke (2007). "Patrimonialism". In Bevir, Mark (ed.). Encyclopedia of Governance. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 669–670. doi:10.4135/9781412952613. ISBN   9781412905794 . Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  5. Fukuyama, Francis (2011). The Origins of Political Order. p. 439.
  6. Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 23
  7. Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 24
  8. Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 65
  9. Schwarz, Adam. 2004. A Nation in Waiting. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
  10. Bakker, J. I. (Hans). 1988. Patrimonialism, Involution, and the Agrarian Question in Java: A Weberian Analysis of Class Relations and Servile Labour. State and Society. London, UK: Unwin Hyman.
  11. Collins, Randall (2011). "Patrimonial Alliances and Failures of State Penetration: A Historical Dynamic of Crime, Corruption, Gangs, and Mafias". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 636. [Sage Publications, Inc., American Academy of Political and Social Science]: 16–31. ISSN   0002-7162. JSTOR   41328549 . Retrieved 2025-01-09. Gangs are patrimonial organizations. They grow in dialectical conflict with bureaucratic penetration and efforts at control. ... Again we see that patrimonial organization forms inside the framework of bureaucratic state institutions, as an explicit resistance to it.