Coda: American Patrimonialism

Abstract

Patrimonialism, until fairly recently, seemed an archaic social form, largely replaced by bureaucratic rationalism. That confident view of modernity, in the histories that Max Weber and his followers wrote, deserves to be challenged as patrimonial regimes reappear in states and firms throughout the world. This article is my attempt to mount that challenge. I first revisit Weber’s conception of patrimonialism and discuss how gendered and elitist studies of early modern Europe require a reevaluation of patrimonialism’s dynamics and resilience. I then present an overview of evidence for the return of patrimonialism and of ideological justifications for its legitimacy, focusing on the United States. Since Weber and his successors all see patrimonialism and bureaucracy as incompatible, it is necessary to develop a theory of how the dynamics of elite conflict within bureaucratic, capitalist societies can generate patrimonialism. I do so in the penultimate section of this article, and I then explore the implications of that theory for predicting the future course of patrimonialism in the twenty-first century.

Local Solidarities: How the Arab Spring Protests Started

“…Scholars have considered how kinship intersects with politics to shape the development of states and other political institutions, especially where patrimonialism prevails (Adams 2007;Charrad 2001Charrad , 2011Collins 2011;Hung 2015;Joseph 2000;Lachmann 2011;Wang and Adams 2011;Weber 1991Weber [1946). Patrimonialism, best defined as ruling through kin or allies on the basis of personal loyalties (Charrad and Adams 2011:6-15), usually refers to power holders.…”

Fellow Travelers From Serbia: LGBT-Identified Persons and the Church in the Process of Europeanization

“…Such religion and religiosity is of necessity ideologized, though declaring and presuming itself to be universal, transcendent and uncontaminated. It is presented as universal despite seeking to define key aspects of the ethnopolitical narrative"(Sremac et al 2015, 53).5 For detailed clarification of the term "autarchy" used in the paper, see: Lachmann 2011.…”