Revista Enfoques: Ciencia Política y Administración Pública ISSN: 0718-0241
[email protected] Universidad Central de Chile Chile Jalali, Carlos; Lisi, Marco Weak Societal Roots, Strong Individual Patrons? Patronage & Party Organization in Portugal Revista Enfoques: Ciencia Política y Administración Pública, vol. VII, núm. 11, 2009, pp. 441-470 Universidad Central de Chile Santiago, Chile Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=96011647014 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Revista Enfoques, Vol. VII N° 11, 2009 pp. 441/470 Weak Societal Roots, Strong Individual Patrons? Patronage & Party Organization in Portugal Carlos Jalali -
[email protected] Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal Marco Lisi -
[email protected] Instituto de Ciências Sociais - Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal We examine why patronage may constitute an important dimension of analysis in the study of Portuguese political parties and the evolution of its party system. In particular, we are interested in exploring two inter-related aspects: first, what is the role of patronage for party organisations in Portugal? And second, how does it im- pact on intra-party functioning? Overall, access to state resources appears to be cru- cial in the rapid building of the party organisations and in their subsequent mainte- nance, potentially creating also barriers to entry for new competitors. This pattern is to a large extent explained by the context in which parties emerged in Portugal, which substantially shaped their organisational structure and societal roots.