ABSTRACT
It is commonly thought that the bonds of patronage can be found elsewhere and in the past, but not in present-day western society. This chapter presents arguments why this view is mistaken, and unfortunate as well, especially in light of the growing awareness that sociology is the science of how people act under the constraints of different institutional arrangements, and how these institutions are created. Many social scientists have noted that patronage relationships are particular forms of social networks. The idea of social capital, i.e., of investing and disinvesting in social networks, plays an important part in the explanation of the emergence and maintenance of patronage relations. Patronage can only thrive under circumstances in which social capital is a means to one's ends. An essential condition, for the development of patronage is the existense of unequal access to resources. State-socialist societies, in particular, offer the possibility to study patronage within the context of a comparative institutional analysis.
