clientismn.
/ˈklʌɪəntɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈklaɪənˌ(t)ɪz(ə)m/ 1.
a. A social, administrative, or political system which depends upon relationships of patronage and reciprocal exchange; the practice of such relations; = clientelism n.
ΚΠ
1799 S. T. Coleridge in Morning Post 7 Dec. We dismiss this fear of bribery and clientism.
1897 H. Nisbet Hunting Gold x. 96 Then pussy finishes the game by patronising the mouse, and patronage and clientism can go no farther.
1909 Times 9 Oct. 7/1 Tended to produce a kind of half-snobbish and wholly unreal sense of ‘patronage’ and of ‘clientism’.
1965 R. Bolling House out of Order vii. 151 Clientism is a disservice to the Congress and the American people.
1998 Daily Tel. 24 Feb. 21/2 Such clientism should have gone out with the Georgians.
2011 Sunday Times (Nexis) 9 Oct. 18 Allowing the diaspora to vote might help wean Irish institutions off clericalism, clientism, cronyism and political personalism.
b. The political or economic patronage by a relatively powerful or influential nation of another less powerful one. Cf. client state n. at client n. Compounds 3.
ΚΠ
1976 Jrnl. Peace Res. 13 145/1 In a more perfect system, liberation struggles would be determined on their own merits by the parties involved... However, as long as imperialism and clientism are major factors in the international system, this situation does not appear very likely.
1985 Listener 16 May 6/2 German terrorists of the 1960s believed that the state had become an impotent servant of American clientism.
1992 New Yorker 24 Aug. 63/2 If Germany..recognized Croatia and Slovenia, France would react by renewing its tie with Serbia, and the prospect of such ‘clientism’..was virtually unthinkable.
2014 Hobart (Austral.) Mercury (Nexis) 24 July 18 A further slide towards clientism, with an ever-weakened Russia treated as a convenient petrol station and mine by stronger powers.
2. U.S. A tendency in a member of a diplomatic service to identify with or favour the institutions, culture, or interests of the country to which he or she is assigned over those of the country that he or she represents; = clientitis n. 2.Originally and chiefly used with reference to members of the U.S. State Department.
ΚΠ
1973 R. Morris in Washington Monthly Nov. (title of essay) Rooting for the other team: clientism in the Foreign Service.
1982 H. Kissinger Years Upheaval x. 445 Foreign Service Officers had a tendency to seek to balance it [sc. the isolationist tradition] by becoming spokesmen for the countries in which they were stationed or for which they were given responsibility... This is referred to as..‘localitis’, or ‘clientism’.
1992 New Republic 24 Feb. 15/2 The errors were reinforced by clientism on the part of State's Belgrade-oriented Yugoslav hands.
2007 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 Sept. a9 Diplomatic caution was dismissed as timid ‘clientism’ from ‘Arabists’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1799