Parties Are Not the Only Patrons: Towards a New Typology of Patronage^*

Studies on patronage and politicization typically focus on the dilemma politicians face when recruiting public personnel. Politicians must choose between appointing loyal allies to implement policies or party members to garner political support. The term politicization typically emphasizes the political facet of the public bureaucracy. Through an integrative literature review, this paper aims to provide new insights into the concept of patronage and its relationship with the politicization of bureaucracy. The paper introduces findings from an intensive literature review of publications on patronage, bureaucracy, and politicization. A search was conducted for texts published between 2000 and 2022 on Scopus and Web of Science. Through a qualitative content analysis, 144 texts discussing the concept of patronage were read and coded to identify theories, frameworks, and measurement methods. The results indicate that the research literature tends to overly emphasize the role of political parties in the distribution of public offices. In contrast, this paper proposes a reconceptualization of patronage, highlighting the power of other stakeholders, such as interest organizations and social movements. It advances the research agenda by proposing a new typology that scholars might employ in comparative studies.

Keywords
Patronage; bureaucracy; politicization; literature review