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Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Javier Auyero ,
Pablo Lapegna  and
Fernanda Page Poma
Javier Auyero
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin. auyero@austin.utexas.edu
Pablo Lapegna
Affiliation:
Sociology Department, State University of New York, Stony Brook. pablolape@yahoo.com.ar
Fernanda Page Poma
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook. ferpage@gmail.com
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Abstract

Based on ethnographic reanalysis and on current qualitative research on poor people's politics, this article argues that routine patronage politics and nonroutine collective action should be examined not as opposite and conflicting political phenomena but as dynamic processes that often establish recursive relationships. Through a series of case studies conducted in contemporary Argentina, this article examines four instances in which patronage and collective action intersect and interact: network breakdown, patron's certification, clandestine support, and reaction to threat. These four scenarios demonstrate that more than two opposing spheres of action or two different forms of sociability, patronage, and contentious politics can be mutually imbricated. Either when it malfunctions or when it thrives, clientelism may lie at the root of collective action.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , Fall 2009 , pp. 1 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2009

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