Patronage Politics

Abstract

Patronage is a key mechanism in populism. Even more so in Greece’s populist democracy where, rather than offering a simple principal-agent relation, it amounts to a large-scale collective action problem involving the distribution of tangible as well as nontangible state-related benefits by the political class to the whole of society. Greek society became the recipient of three such types of benefit: real incomes, such as salaries and pensions; privileged protection against market risks; and widespread impunity from the law.