Patrons, Clients and Friends

The form of social relations described by the terms 'patronage' and 'patron-client relations' is of central concern to sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists today. Characterised by its voluntary and highly personal but often fully institutionalised nature, it is a type of behaviour found in almost every human society. It touches upon basic aspects of the construction and regulation of social order and is therefore closely connected to major theoretical problems and controversies in the social sciences.
This book analyses some special types of these interpersonal relations -- ritual kinship, patron-client relations and friendship -- and the social conditions in which they develop. The authors draw upon a wide range of examples, from societies as diverse as those of the Mediterranean. Latin America, the Middle and Far East and the U.S.S.R., in their study of the core characteristics of such relationships. They look at them as mechanisms of social exchange, examine their impact on the institutional structures in which they exist, and assess the significance of the variations in their occurrence. Their analysis highlights the importance of these relationships in social life and concludes with a stimulating discussion of the ensuing tensions and ambivalences and the ways in which these are dealt with -- though perhaps never fully overcome.
Patrons, clients and friends is the first systematic comparative study of these interpersonal relations and makes the first attempt to relate them to central aspects of social structure. It will therefore be an important contribution to both comparative analysis and social theory and will be of interest to a wide range of socialscientists.

Preface; 1. Personal relations, trust and ambivalence in relations to the institutional order; 2. The construction of trust in the social order and its ambivalences: viewed from the development of sociological theory; 3. The structuring of trust in society: Unconditionalities, generalised exchange and the developement of interpersonal relations; 4. The basic characteristics and variety of patron-client relations; 5 The clientelistic mode of generalised exchange and patron-client relations as addenda to the central relations; 6. The social conditions generating patron-client relations; 7. Variations in patron-client relations; 8. Ritualised interpersonal relations; privacy; 9. Concluding remarks: The dialectics of trust and the social order; Notes; Index.