patrimonialism, form of political organization in which authority is based primarily on the personal power exercised by a ruler, either directly or indirectly.
A patrimonial ruler may act alone or as a member of a powerful elite group or oligarchy. Although the ruler’s authority is extensive, he is not viewed as a tyrant. For instance, the leadership of the contemporary Roman Catholic Church remains patrimonial. Direct rule involves the ruler and a few key members of the ruler’s household or staff maintaining personal control over every aspect of governance. If rule is indirect, there may be an intellectual or moral elite of priests or officeholders as well as a military. The priestly group may deify the leader. The king, sultan, maharaja, or other ruler is able to make independent decisions on an ad hoc basis, with few if any checks on his power. No individual or group is powerful enough to oppose the ruler consistently without, in turn, becoming the new patrimonial ruler. The ruler is generally recognized as the chief landholder and, in the extreme case, as the owner of all the land in the kingdom or state. The legal authority of the ruler is largely unchallenged; there is no recognized body of case law or formal law, though there may be notions of etiquette and honour.
The term patrimonialism is often used in conjunction with patriarchy, since the earliest form of governance in small groups may have been patriarchal. There is a relationship of personal dependence between an official and the ruler, so that the structure ideology is one of a large extended family. The idea of an early matriarchal society—as distinguished from matrilineal descent—is largely discredited. A “Big Man” chiefdom system is characteristic of many indigenous peoples, and transition from patriarchy to patrimony is probably common historically around the world. Typically, patrimonialism is adopted after a patriarchal society expands to encompass a larger geographical area, as in the development of agriculturally based civilizations. Patrimonialism was probably characteristic of many early agrarian civilizations that were based on irrigation systems.
The concept of patrimonialism was applied to the study of politics at the beginning of the 19th century by the Swiss legal scholar Karl Ludwig von Haller, who was an opponent of the French Revolution. Like the British political thinker Edmund Burke, Haller attacked the ancien régime but also opposed Romanticism and violent revolutionary change. Haller argued that the state can and should be viewed as the patrimonium (the patrimonial possession) of the ruler. According to Haller’s theory of the Patrimonialstaat, the prince is responsible only to God and natural law. In the 20th century the German sociologist Max Weber adopted the term Patrimonialstaat as a label for his ideal-type model of traditional authority (Herrschaft).
A crucial difference between the concept of patrimonialism and the contemporary concepts of totalitarianism and authoritarianism is that the patrimonial form tends to be associated with traditional, premodern, precapitalist societies. But aspects of both the arbitrary use of power by rulers and the employment of mercenaries and retainers can be found in contemporary totalitarian societies. Similarly, contemporary patron-client systems are often remnants of earlier patrimonial clientism. Whether or not it is useful to speak of nation-states in the 21st century as having elements of neopatrimonialism is disputed.