Patronage and governance in southern Europe

Abstract

The dissertation analyses the interaction between patronage and governance in Southern Europe by looking at two case studies, the Republic of Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 2005 and 2015. Actively engaging with definitions of patronage and literature of how this phenomenon interacts with governance, the work takes the Southern European frame as a primary point of reference in looking at a particularly ‘Southern’ conception of political patronage and how this affects societies. Political and social developments in the case study countries, particularly the development of governance structures, has been affected strongly by the logic of patronage in Italy and Bosnia. A synthesis section following the case studies critically examines in comparative focus the overlaps and differences between the countries, proposes a number of findings on patronage and governance, and discusses the limitations of the chosen approaches. In the process, the relevance of patronage to processes of governance and explorations of social and political conflict are elucidated such that policymakers and academics may find conclusions useful to their work.