Prebendal Government: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Political Corruption

This article provides a theoretical analytical framework for understanding the corruptive functioning of political systems in the form of the idea of prebendalism, which has received little attention at the local political science literature. The concept of prebendalism and prebendal government is closely linked to the political corruption which itself has various dimensions and specific roots and consequences both at the community and the state level. Based on Joseph's views, the present paper provides a theoretical framework for understanding the issue of political corruption. The Prebendal government describes how elites and brokers operate at the political system level, indicating that the elites, because of their historical-political role and their performance in political positions, enjoy additional special privileges beyond legal ones at the state level and their major goal is further access to economic and political resources. The main question of the article is, what are the characteristics, foundations, and components for the formation of the Prebendal State? Inspired by Joseph's views and use of library resources and applying a historical-descriptive approach, this paper has found that the Prebendal government incorporates a variety of factors such as patrimonialism, clientalism, perception of the state as a market, the lack of a legitimated ideology, leadership weakness, which ultimately lead to outcomes such as permanent conflict at the political system level and deep social inequalities.