Approaches to political clientelism: a polysemic concept between instrumental and relational approaches

Abstract

The notion of political clientelism associates a variety of ideas that describe the phenomenon, from the purchase and coercion of the vote, the exchange of favors for votes, and it is even linked to acts of corruption. However, the use of the concept continues to generate gaps regarding its specificity and use within the field of social sciences, which makes it difficult to grasp it and its application as a methodological tool in social research. For this reason, the essay presented below proposes to provide a current overview regarding study perspectives that have addressed the phenomenon, in order to identify how it develops in democratic societies and thus build a definition about it. It is a proposal that seeks to provide

the necessary elements for the understanding of the subject and to open the current debate on the importance and scope that it has for the understanding of persistent social problems.