Élites et clients

The primary ideas on leadership could be isolated into two major elements; political elites and of course patron-clients. Some might be having zero ideas on discussed elements. Do not worry as this blog is meant to be explained the said terms.

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Political Elites

Firstly, political elites refer to a group of individuals, companies, political parties or public organizations that manages the government and all manifestations of political power that comprises traditional elites and foreign economic elites; non-state actors like multinational cooperation in most developing states. The traditional usually classified under religion, aristocracy and landlords.

Three of the most influential figures in elite theory; the jurist and philosopher Gaetano Mosca, the economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, and the political sociologist and economist Robert Michels also stressed the persistence of elites. The formation of elite groups, they argued, is inescapable in modern societies and imposes limits on what is possible in politics.

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Patron-clients

Patron-client is a close, intimate, and personal relationship of mutual obligation and reciprocity between two groups of people. The patrons refer to the superior people meanwhile the clients are the inferior one. It's a mutual obligatory arrangement between an individual who has authority, social status, wealth, or some other personal resource (the patron) and another person who benefits from his or her support or influence (the client).

The system works where both parties offer goods and services to the other party. The patron has superior power and influence and uses them to support his customers and, in exchange, to provide smaller services and loyalty over an extended period of time. It's a mutual agreement to make sure there is a beneficiary for both parties. The client shall be protected and guaranteed. The patron, on the other hand, has followers who serve to increase his influence but faces difficulties in calculating gains and losses. China could be an example of the evolution of Chinese labour and their wage policies from 1949-1984 showed a conceptual analysis of communist and capitalist economies. Andrew Walder (1986), through Communist Neo-Traditionalism, argues the centrality of clientelism in contemporary urban China.