Affiliation:
1. Research Group “Socio-Technical Futures and Policies” Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) P.O. 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe Karlsruhe Deutschland
Abstract
Abstract
Clientelism as a structure of political expectations is relevant for understanding both the development of states and present-day politics in many segments of the world-political system. It is a solution to three general problems that modern political systems face: the affirmation of central authority over a territory, the mobilization of voters in democratic elections, and the need to provide political careers for individuals. The article illustrates these problems and their clientelistic solution by drawing on the examples of Russia, Greece and Japan. In these cases, patron-client ties function as equivalents to solutions on which systems theory has mostly focused when describing modern political systems: autonomous bureaucratic administration, electoral campaigns based on political programs, and party organizations based on formal membership and ideology.