Welfarism and seeking for social assistance as a survival strategy in peasant contexts characterized by political clientelism

Abstract

Usually, the investigations on political clientelism tend to adopt and external point of view of the phenomenon which do not take into account the cultural and psychosocial processes that support these practices. Thus, I performed a case study in a peasant community located in the province of Formosa, Argentina, aiming to approach both, the subjective dimension of clientelism and the seeking of social assistance as a survival strategy. I conclude that the existence of relations of reciprocity between wealthy actors such as politicians and landlords, and small farmers, is characteristic of the peasant culture. Nonetheless, despite the fact it is clear that these practices are related to clientelism, they are not the same. Finally, I argue that while political clientelism sometimes can be explained focusing on relations of power, in other cases the feeling of gratitude between peasants and landlords is the most important aspect.