Unpacking patronage: the politics of patronage appointments in Argentina and Uruguay’s central administrations

This study makes the following contributions to the study of the politics of patronage appointments in Latin America: Conceptually, it adopts Kopecký et al (2008) distinction between clientelistic and non-clientelistic types of patronage politics as a conceptual lens for the study of patronage practices in Latin America’s presidentialist regimes.. Analytically, it sets up a new taxonomy of patronage appointments based on the roles appointees’ play vis a vis the Executive, the ruling party and the public administration that can be used for the comparative study of the politics of patronage. Empirically, it applies the taxonomy to a pilot study of the politics of patronage in Argentina and Uruguay under two left of centre administrations. Theoretically, it contributes to theory building by relating the findings of our research to differences in party systems and presidential powers in the countries under study and agency factors associated to the respective governments’ political projects. The article concludes that differences in patronage practices are a manifestation of two different forms of exercising governmental power: a hyper-presidentialist, populist one in Argentina and a party-centered, social democratic one in Uruguay.