Political support exchanged for particular benefits rather than policy, which is stable, personal, and hostile to universal provision.
The exchange is durable because it is personal and monitorable, which is exactly why it resists programmatic welfare — universal provision severs the link the patron depends on.
In practice
- A local councillor who fixes individual housing repairs is re-elected indefinitely and votes against the reform that would fix repairs generally.
- A manager who grants favours case by case builds more loyalty than one who publishes a fair policy, and less capacity.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works