African Patrimonial Régimes in Comparative Perspective

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Abstract
In1968, Guenther Roth perceptively argued the utility of using the concept of patrimonialism to analyse rulership in developing states.1Roth described two principal types: ‘the historical survival of traditionalist regimes’, of which he saw Ethiopia as the foremost example; and the ‘personal rulership on the basis of loyalties that do not require any belief in the ruler's unique personal qualifications, but are inextricably linked to material incentives and rewards’.2. His distinction remains apt and serves to focus our attention on two modal political forms that continue to find expression in post-independence Africa. However, these useful categories are not mutually exclusive, and need further amplification if they are to provide much insight into the rich variety of political experimentation that still goes on throughout the continent. Moreover, since the terminology is self-consciously borrowed from Max Weber, both the traditional and modern matrices of African patrimonialism need to be explored briefly lest the reference to the Weberian connection constricts rather than enlarges the analysis.

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