Patrimonialism

Patrimonialism is a term used to designate a form of political organization. It is more often used in the Latin-based languages (e.g., French, Italian) than in English. The key focus in the model is the extent to which legitimate authority is based primarily on personal power exercised by the ruler, either directly or indirectly. The ruler may act alone or as a member of a powerful elite group or oligarchy. The ruler is not viewed as a tyrant. The structure of the Roman Catholic Church today is still patrimonial. Direct rule involves the ruler and a few key members of the ruler's household or staff maintaining personal control over every aspect of governance. If rule is indirect, there may be an intellectual or moral elite of priests or office holders as well as a military. The priestly group [Page 669]may invoke deity for the leader. The king, sultan, maharaja or other ruler is able to make independent decisions on an ad hoc basis, with little if any checks and balances. No individual or group is powerful enough to oppose the ruler consistently without, in turn, becoming the new patrimonial ruler. The ruler is recognized as the chief landholder and, in the extreme case, all of the land and its people are his domain. The legal authority of the ruler is largely unchallenged; there is no recognized body of case law or formal law, but there may be notions of etiquette and honor.

The term patrimonialism is often used in conjunction with patriarchy, since the earliest form of governance in small groups may have been patriarchal. There is a relationship of personal dependence between an official and the ruler, so that the ideology is one of a large extended family. The idea of an early matriarchal society—as distinguished from matrilineal descent—is largely discredited. A “Big Man” chiefdom system is characteristic of many indigenous peoples and transition from patriarchy to patrimony is probably common historically around the world. As the size of the organizational structure switches from an extended family to a larger geographical area, particularly in agriculturally based civilizations, we move to the kind of patrimonialism that was probably characteristic of many early agrarian civilizations based on irrigation systems.

The relevance of the term patrimonialism for the study of governance and domination was popularized by Karl Ludwig von Haller (1768–1854), a Swiss conservative from Berne who was an opponent of the French Revolution. Haller attacked the ancient regime but, like Edmund Burke, was also opposed to Romanticism and violent revolutionary change. Haller argues that the state can and should be viewed as the patrimonium of the ruler. In his Patrimonialstaat concept, the prince is responsible only to God and natural law. Max Weber picked up on the term in 1922, modified it significantly, rejected the natural law argument, and uses it as a label for his Ideal Type Model (ITM) of Traditional Authority (Herrschaft). No doubt the fact that many European thinkers would have associated the term with a conservative stance may have helped Weber make his argument clear.

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