Patrimonialism - Examples

Examples

Richard Pipes cited the Egyptian Ptolemies and the Attalids of Pergamon as early Patrimonial monarchies, both successor states to Alexander the Great's empire.

Jean Bodin described seigneurial monarchies in the Six books of the Commonwealth 1576-86 where the monarch owns all the land. He claimed that Turkey and Muscovy were the only European examples. He believed they came about through conquest and were common in Africa and Asia.

Modern and Contemporary Hungarian achademics support the postulate that in the Middle Ages the Kingdom of Hungary existed as a Patrimonialistic Kingdom (in Hungarian Language: Patrimoniális királyság) where the King was the supreme owner of the Kingdom's lands. Indonesia, before and during the Suharto administration, is often cited as being patrimonial in its political-economy.

A strikingly large proportion of 20th century praetorian regimes emerged in countries that had been occupied by the USA. Examples include Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's regime after the American intervention in 1953, the regimes of the Somozas, Duvaliers and Trujillo (their countries were occupied by US marines 1912-33, 1915–34 and 1916–24), and Batista's regime in Cuba.

An enormous irony is that by toppling the native landowners, officers and bourgeoisie, the Americans created just the sort of regime that could be overthrown by Communist and Islamic revolutionaries. Attempts at Islamic revolution in Egypt and Communist revolutions in Colombia have failed because of the strength of native institutions. The revolutions in Cuba, Nicaragua and Iran would have almost certainly not happened if it were not for American interventionism.