Patrimonialism
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Patrimonialism is a form of
Various definitions
Max Weber
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
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
Pipes argues that the Russian Empire 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]
See also
- Crony capitalism
- Neo-patrimonialism
- Tsarist autocracy
- Pater familias
References
- OCLC 54952945.
- ^ Quimpo, Nathan Gilbert (January–March 2007). "Trapo Parties and Corruption". KASAMA. 21 (1): 2 – via Solidarity Philippines Australia Network.
- ^ Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 22
- ISBN 9781412905794. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
- ^ Fukuyama, Francis (2011). The Origins of Political Order. p. 439.
- ^ Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 23
- ^ Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 24
- ^ Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, page 65
- ^ Schwarz, Adam. 2004. A Nation in Waiting. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
- ^ 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.