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Changing political parties, persistent patronage: The Italian case in comparative perspective

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

The politicization of the state is a relevant feature of contemporary democracies. At the analytical level, the article contributes to the study of patterns of politicization of the state, distinguishing the concept of patronage from other notions of political particularism often used synonymously in the literature. At the empirical level, the article examines patronage practices in contemporary Italy. It is part of a cross-national qualitative survey that allows the contextualization of the Italian case within a wider set of 15 European democracies for which aggregate comparative data will be presented. The empirical analysis identifies the causal mechanisms that explain why Italy still displays high, albeit decreasing, levels of politicization of the state.

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Notes

  1. However, the persistence of patronage as a clientelistic exchange in Southern regions cannot compensate for the fall in the depth of party colonization within central disaggregated bodies.

  2. It must be noted that this hypothesis is confirmed only with respect to the distribution of public sector jobs as one of the most relevant clientelistic exchanges. Further research is needed to empirically assess the decline of clientelistic exchanges based on selective benefits other than public jobs.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks Petr Kopecky, Peter Mair, Maria Spirova and all the members of the University of Leiden/European University Institute-coordinated ‘Patronage and Political Parties’ comparative research project.

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  1. Department of Political Studies, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ Via Nemorense, Roma, 00199, Italy

    Fabrizio Di Mascio

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Di Mascio, F. Changing political parties, persistent patronage: The Italian case in comparative perspective. Comp Eur Polit 10, 377–398 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2011.4

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