Clientelism, interests, and democratic representation : the European experience in historical and comparative perspective

This 2001 book charts the evolution of clientelist practices in several western European countries. Through the historical and comparative analysis of countries as diverse as Sweden and Greece, England and Spain, France and Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands, the authors study both the 'supply-side' - the institutional context in which party leaders devise and implement their political strategies - and the 'demand-side' - the degree of 'empowerment' of civil society - of clientelism. This approach contends that clientelism is a particular mix of particularism and universalism, in which interests are aggregated at the level of the individual and his family 'particularism', but in which all interests can potentially find expression and accommodation 'universalism'. In contrast, 'consociationalism' and 'corporatism' are systems of interest representation in which interests are aggregated at the level of 'social pillar' or the functional association 'universalism', but in which not all interests can find representation and accommodation 'particularism'.