Introduction
| Author | Luigi Graziano |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218300400402 |
| Date | 01 October 1983 |
| Published date | 01 October 1983 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
425
INTRODUCTION
This
issue
of
the
International
Political
Science
Review-and
the
panel
at the
IPSA
Congress
in
Rio
on
which
it
is
based ’ -is
a
response
to
what
I
take
to
be
a
widespread
feeling
of
dissatisfaction
about
the
&dquo;state
of
the
art&dquo;
in
clientelist
studies.
Many
practitioners,
including
this
writer,
seem
to
feel
that
as
the
number
of
countries
and
areas
of
social
activities
that
have
come
to
be
scrutinized
in
terms
of
the
clientelist
approach
has
grown-and
it
has
grown
immensely
in
the
last
decade
or
so2-the
concept
has
shown
a
number
of
serious
weaknesses.
One
major
aspect
of
the
problem,
as
I
see
it,
is
the
growing
disjunction
between
descriptive
studies,
of
which
we
have
no
scarcity,
and
the
theoretical
paucity,
even
sterility,
of
the
concept.
In
this
introduction
I
shall
focus
on
some
recent
theoretical
formulations
that
may
add
to
our
understanding
of
clientelism
as
both
a
specific
type
of
dyadic
relationship
and
a
macro-societal
phenomenon,
and
that
constitute,
in
my
view,
a
promising
line
of
research.
Before
doing
that,
I
shall
briefly
review
some
conceptual
problems
that
are
recurrent
in
the
literature.
In
view
of the
deficiencies
to
which
reference
has
just
been
made,
one
radical
solution
would
be-as
some
authors
have
suggested-to
get
rid
of
the
concept
altogether.
Yet
the
problem
of
clientelism
would
still
be
very
much
with
us.
What
may
be
called,
for
lack
of
a
better
word,
the
clientelist
&dquo;syndrome&dquo;
is
clearly
discernible
in
a
number
of
countries
and
situations.
It
is
discernible
first
of
all
in
the
language
of
the
people,
as
Jean
Leca
and
Yves
Schemeil
demonstrate
in
this
issue
with
reference
to
the
Arab
nations
and
many
centuries
of
Arab
history.
The
Arab
language
has
a
whole
panoply
of
terms-of
which
the
authors
trace
the
historical
origin
and
evolution
in
meaning-to
cover
&dquo;clientelistic
situations,&dquo;
that
is,
situations
in
which
a
key
role
is
played
by
the
two
functions
that
are
central
to
the
concept-protection
and
mediation.
Similarly,
to
cite
another
example,
it
would
be
simply
impossible
to
analyze
politics
and
society
in
southern
Italy
(indeed
crucial
aspects
of
Italian
politics)
without
some
reference
to
the
notion
of
clientelismo.
Furthermore,
as
Jacek
Tarkowski
shows
in
his
contribution
to
this
issue,
similar
practices
play a
crucial
role
in
systems,
such
as
in
the
socialist
countries,
in
which
normative
and
ideological
bases
are
in
direct
contradiction
to
the
principles
of
patronage.
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