Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Weingrod, writing of Sardinia, distinguishes between ‘patronage’ in the social anthropological sense of “patron-client relationships” —”how persons of unequal authority, yet linked through ties of interest and friendship, manipulate their relationships in order to attain their ends”; and ‘patronage’ in the political scientist's sense of “party-directed patronage”—”the ways in which party politicians distribute public jobsor special favours in exchange for electoral support”. Weingrod goes on to argue that the former conception is no longer relevant to an analysis of modern Sardinian political behaviour: with the narrowing of the gap between village, city and state, and the evolution of national parties at the local level, the conception of party-directed patronage is more appropriate.