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Forms of participation

Forms of participation. Social Capital and Patron-client relations: What difference do they make?. Social capital and civil society:.

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Forms of participation

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  1. Forms of participation Social Capital and Patron-client relations: What difference do they make?

  2. Social capital and civil society: • “Social capital” refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone • Civil society: • sometimes used as a surrogate for society • Defined as a society capable ofself organization -- thus capable of organizing itself

  3. Where does social capital come from? • Wealth? • Education? • Organizations and situations which stimulate trust?

  4. Patron-Client Relations An exchange relationship in whichparticipation in politics is mediated through one or more intermediaries or patrons (clientelism)

  5. How patron-client relations work • Clients, at the base, give support to patrons in exchange for specific benefits – e.g. jobs, favours, preferential treatment • Lower-level patrons provide support to higher level patrons in exchange for benefits or resources • Politicians and/or bureaucrats use their control of government to generate resources for intermediaries (patronage)

  6. Where do resources for patron-client relations come from? Control of government, resulting in • Colonization of the state: supporters & sympathizers placed in patronage appointments • Rules & procedures waived in exchange for kickbacks, bribes • Rake-offs taken on all contracts, licenses • Resources, benefits allocated only in exchange for past or future support

  7. Clientelism more likely in: • Places in which the population is dependent on government largesse for its economic survival (e.g peripheral or less developed regions) • Populations unable to fend for themselves (e.g., peasants, immigrants) • Transitional or less developed societies • Countries with complex and cumbersome regulations

  8. What difference does it make? • Impact of clientelism on political culture? • How well does clientelism mesh with • Ideological politics? • Post-materialism? • Are patron-client relationships compatible with a civil society? • Does clientelism create or destroy social capital?

  9. Some questions: • Are social capital and civil society prerequisites of liberal democracy? • What kinds of participation generate social capital? • Direct face-to-face participation? • Participation in `credit card’ organizations? • Is social capital declining? (Robert Putnam’s argument in “Bowling Alone”)

  10. Problem: • Do post-materialism & the `more the more’ hypothesis address the same question? • Does one tell you more about who participates and the other more about the values of those who participate? • What difference does post-materialism make? • Can the power of numbers counter the advantages of access and skill?

  11. Who gets what, when, and how? (Harold Lasswell) • Do the phenomena of post-materialism and the `more the more’ hypothesis mean that the demands of the poor and the working classes are always neglected?

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