Social Movements, Public Policy and Informal Institutions: The Role of Patronage in Chile (2006-2022)

This presentation analyzes how mobilization and public policy shape one another in Chile over two decades, during an intensive cycle of collective action (2006-2022). By examining the interrelationship between mobilization and public policy, we argue that patronage is the glue that binds the two. Patronage is an informal institution, specifically a mechanism of non-professional recruitment in bureaucracies, in which political parties and agents appoint their supporters to government positions.

Using descriptive data from the Conflict Observatory of the Center for Social Cohesion and Conflict Studies, as well as secondary information produced by state agencies, and primary information comprising fieldwork conducted in six regions between 2003 and 2024, we study how bureaucracies fuel, block, or limit the effectiveness of policies. We show that until 2019, patronage channelled and attenuated social conflict in specific areas, enabling the rapid delivery of social benefits and jobs that public policies should transparently manage but do not. We assess through which mechanisms bureaucracies limit the reach of social justice reforms, focusing on research from the South. We examine sectors where patronage has no impact, particularly education and pensions, and areas where public employment mitigates social conflicts. We also analyze the limits of this mediation in the context of the 2019 social outburst.

Our contribution is twofold. First, we assess the evolution of the mediation between social movements and public policies. We analyze the specific mechanisms by which implementers shift reform efforts away from the demands of social movements through patronage, which operates as a shock absorber of mobilizations in some sectors. Second, we develop a framework for triangulating mobilizations, public policies and informal institutions. This helps to understand how and why efforts to challenge systems of domination fall short during the design and implementation stage of policies by state and social actors.