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THE MASS CLIENTELISM PARTY: THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN CATANIA AND IN SOUTHERN ITALY
Author(s) -
BELLONI FRANK,
CACIAGLI MARIO,
MATTINA LIBORIO
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1979.tb00561.x
Subject(s) - clientelism , politics , political science , single non transferable vote , democracy , political economy , agrarianism , power (physics) , representation (politics) , split ticket voting , realigning election , party platform , public administration , sociology , law , socialism , communism , physics , quantum mechanics
The main theoretical question confronted in this article concerns the nature and character of the Christian Democratic party (DC) in Catania and in Southern Italy. The Catania DC was transformed in the early fifties from a party of representation led by “notables” to a modern party under the direction of a new class of party professionals. The DC has become a mass party, containing various characteristics attributed to the mass party model in the literature; but it lacks some mass party features and contains others which are extraneous to it. The particular use of the party's mass membership in the intraparty struggle for position and power and the employment of the instrument of clientelism for achieving its goal, is what distinguishes the Southern Italy party. A mass‐based structure, clientelism and the use of public resources for distributing benefits are the main characteristics of the mass clientele party. The article examines the structure and the mode of operation of the mass clientele party; the principal sets of social, economic and political conditions necessary for the emergence of such a party; the functions it performs in the regional and national political systems.