Benefaction differs only in that the relationship is not personal: so many people are the beneficiaries (e.g., a city, a whole country, a voluntary association) of what has been given that they do not as individuals owe anything to the benefactor. The best definition of patronage is the broadest one: patronage is a form of exchange that is personal and that involves someone with superior status giving something to those with inferior status, leaving the inferior party owing honor and loyalty to the superior party.
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Patrons and clients are not friends, although their rhetoric sometimes tries to hide the unsavory fact of their unequal status. Patronage and benefaction, though not exactly the same, are types of generalized exchange that have three features: (1) there must be reciprocity, in that something must be exchanged by both parties (2) the value of what is exchanged must be unequal (otherwise, it is a loan that is repaid, or gifts that are exchanged) and (3) the status of the parties involved in the exchange is relatively unequal. Yet, because Antiquity was collectivistic, there is no equivalent to the modern pejorative sense sometimes contained in the term “patronage.” It was expected that patrons favor their clients anything less would be unjust.
![patronage politics definition patronage politics definition](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w03WtiKa8NY/maxresdefault.jpg)
PATRONAGE POLITICS DEFINITION FREE
Conversely, having a patron (i.e., being a client) was seen by many as analogous to being a slave, in that a client was never entirely free to act or speak his mind. On the one hand, patronage was the social safety net of the ancient world: there were social expectations that wealthy people should support the poor, since hoarding one’s wealth was looked down upon. There were positive and negative associations with patronage in the ancient Mediterranean as well.
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Used in modern political settings, it is evidence of corruption, but in the arts it is evidence of generosity (although it is also advertising, since patrons are rarely anonymous). Patronage is a term with many connotations.