CLIENTELISTIC PRACTICES AND POLITICAL BROKERS: A CASE STUDY OF THE 2020 ROMANIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS
CLIENTELISTIC PRACTICES AND POLITICAL BROKERS: A CASE STUDY OF THE 2020 ROMANIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS

Summary/Abstract: Electoral clientelism is a constant phenomenon in modern societies. It involves the offering of goods and/or services for political support, an implicit or explicit quid pro quo relationship, or a favor for a favor. Clientelism is an asymmetric relationship between the patron (patronus), clients (cliens) and those who ensure the link between them, i.e. electoral brokers. Using a series of semi-structured interviews with people involved in this phenomenon in Bucharest-Romania, our analysis indicates that electoral brokers are not attached to a political party, be it a left-wing or a right-wing one. Having under their command a certain mass of voters, loyal through regularly distributed material benefits, brokers sell their votes to the party with the best financial offer. Also, the analysis indicates that this type of electoral clientelism occurs mainly in local communities where the electoral competition is on the edge, especially in the case of local elections.

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