Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy

The Rise of Programmatic Politics in the United States and Britain

Didi Kuo

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781108426084
• eBook ISBN: 9781108686723
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Political parties in the United States and Britain used clientelism and patronage to govern throughout the nineteenth century. By the twentieth century, however, parties in both countries shifted to programmatic competition. This book argues that capitalists were critical to this shift. Businesses developed new forms of corporate management and capitalist organization, and found clientelism inimical to economic development. Drawing on extensive archival research in the United States and Britain, this book shows how national business organizations pushed parties to adopt programmatic reforms, including administrative capacities and policy-centered campaigns. Parties then shifted from reliance on clientelism as a governing strategy in elections, policy distribution, and bureaucracy. They built modern party organizations and techniques of interest mediation and accommodation. This book provides a novel theory of capitalist interests against clientelism, and argues for a more rigorous understanding of the relationship between capitalism and political development.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Clientelism as a Failure of Governance: A Theory of Business, Parties, and Programmatic Demands
• 2 Clientelism as a Governing Strategy in the United States
• 3 Business Organization and the Push for Programmatic Parties
• 4 Clientelism and Governance in Britain, 1850-1880
• 5 Administrative Reform and Programmatic Parties in Britain
• Conclusion: Capitalist Interests, Programmatic Parties, and Elusive Reforms
• References
• Index