Changes in Clientelism and Urban Government

A Comparative Case Study of Naples and Marseilles

Bibliographic Data

ID4381628
AuthorsCesare Mattina (0000-0002-9286-0985, Aix-Marseille Université, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume31
Issue1
Pages73-90
Publication date2007-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00717.x
OpenAlexW2061808004
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited14

This article discusses changes to political clientelism and forms of urban government in Naples and in Marseilles in the period from the 1960s to the 2000s. From a socio-historical, comparative perspective I show that, even in two Southern European cities, the expansion of political clientelism does not depend principally on cultural factors, but rather on politico-institutional processes. The generalization of clientelistic relationships and the increase in policies for redistributing resources on the basis of clientelistic criteria go hand in hand with two historical trends that were evident in the 1960s and 1970s. Those decades were a period both of demographic development and of welfare state expansion at both central and local levels, the latter leading to the distribution of public resources to growing masses of individuals and social groups. In this phase, clientelistic redistribution policies promoted the integration and the upward social mobility of sections of the middle classes and some strata of the working classes in the local and national political system. From the late 1970s and early 1980s onwards, however, these policies were less and less able to promote this upward mobility and social integration. The article ends with a favourable account of some of the new urban management policies conducted by new political leaderships

Clientelism · Development economics · Distribution (mathematics) · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Redistribution (election) · Sociology · Welfare state · European Political History Analysis · French Urban and Social Studies · Law · Political and Social Issues

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access