Patrimonialism has survived yet another shift -- democratization. Given that
democratization is not an event but a process (and a long one at that) one would expect to
see practices of the pre-transition regime continue for some time after founding elections.
However, patrimonialism continues to shape virtually every democratic process and
institution in most African countries. One might object again that this reflects
fundamentally flawed transitions and a modal regime that can only be considered pseudo-
democratic. Restricting ourselves to best cases, those countries ranked "free" by
Freedom House in 2005 (Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, and Senegal), we see
democratization proceeding hand in hand with entrenched patrimonial practices in all
except Botswana (Decalo 1997, Sandbrook and Oelbaum 1997, Matlosa 1998, Sandbrook
1997, Beck 1998, 2001).
This is not so surprising if we recall that Weber's (1978)
patrimonialism is one of three ideal types of "authority," the other two being bureaucracy
and charisma. It is a state form, not a regime type, and one would not expect to see rapid
change in the relatively permanent institutions of the state in response to adoption of a
new set of rules of the game, or regime. Virtually all contemporary states are
bureaucratic/patrimonial hybrids, with most states in the developing world demonstrating
significant elements of patrimonialism. Africa is unique only in that patrimonial
elements are predominant there, constituting "the foundation and superstructure of
political institutions" (Bratton and van de Walle 1997:62). Specific rules of the game,
which constitute alternative regime types, interact with codes of behavior embedded in
the relatively permanent institutions of that state (Rothchild 1987). What follows is a
very tentative initial exploration of the how patrimonial state institutions and democratic
2
For reasons that are not well understood, Botswana has demonstrated far less patrimonialism than other
countries from the time of its independence in 1966. Also ranked free in 2003 were the island countries of
Sâo Tome and Principé, Cape Verde and Mauritius, as well as the newly independent countries of South
African and Namibia. The size of the former raise serious questions about their comparability to mainland
countries, and the latter two are somewhat special cases because of their double transition -- though
Namibia especially already demonstrates marked movement toward patrimonialism.
4
Convention