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Political Concepts
A Working Paper Series of the Committee on Concepts and Methods
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| Petr Kopecky, Gerardo Scherlis & Maria Spirova, "Conceptualizing and Measuring Party Patronage," September 2008 |
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| Abstract | | This paper defines and operationalizes the concept of party patronage and presents a design of empirical inquiry into patronage practices from a comparative perspective. The first section of the paper reviews several existing concepts of particularistic behavior and modes of state exploitation, disentangles the relationships among them, and situates the concept of party patronage within this context. We argue that party patronage can be seen as a distinct phenomenon, clearly different from other concepts of particularistic exchanges with which it has been frequently intertwined. It is chiefly defined by the subject of the action and the practice of allocating public jobs in a discretional manner. Based on our definition of patronage, we also present and discuss four hypotheses related to patronage practices in contemporary democracies, suggesting the probable effects of party organizational changes on the scope, the institutional location, and the rationale of party patronage. We then review and critique currently used ways to define and especially to measure patronage. The last part of the paper outlines our approach to measuring patronage and presents an example of its applicability in an empirical setting. |
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C&M
The Committee on Concepts and Methods
International Political Science Association (IPSA)
Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)
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Col. Lomas de Santa Fe
CP 01210 Mexico, DF
Mexico
Phone +52/55/5727-9800
Copyright (c) 2005 Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas.
All rights reserved.
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