Fukuyama defines "clientelism" as follows:
Clientelism occurs when political parties use public resources, and particularly government offices, as a means of rewarding political supporters. Politicians provide not programmatic public policies, but individual benefits like a job in the post office, an intervention on behalf of a relative in trouble with the government, or sometimes an outright payment of money or goods.Fukuyama then makes a distinction:
Clientelism should be distinguished from corruption proper because of the relationship of reciprocity that exists between politicians and voters. There is a real degree of accountability in a clientelistic system: the politician has to give something back to supporters if he or she is to stay in power, even if that is a purely private benefit.Whether your ancestors came from northern or southern Europe, or elsewhere, this is an interesting analysis. Upon reflection, I suspect my late father was a beneficiary of clientelism in California in the 1930s.
The other DrC and I observed clientelism very much alive and well on the U.S. dependency of Guam in the mid-1980s. Speaking immediately after his election and making reference to campaign workers, the Governor of Guam was supposed to have said, "Where will I find jobs for all these people?" One result: GovGuam turned school bus driver into a full-time career government job.
