This chapter will provide the clarification of the origin, nature, and identify forms of political patronage in Vietnam. First, the authors present the origin of patronage in the context of Vietnamese culture and history; emphasizing the element of feudalism, Confucianism and culture-villageoise. After that, the authors analyze patronage appointments in contemporary Vietnamese politics, in light of its specific institutional dynamics. Finally, the chapter provides various typical case studies for the classification of patronage according to the models of Peters (2021).

Though the Islamic waqf is defunct, the Middle East now features modern organizations known also as waqfs. The modern waqf is essentially a philanthropic or charitable corporation. It is self-governing and has a perpetual existence. Along with other autonomous nongovernmental organizations known under different names, the modern waqf provides the institutional basis for a vigorous civil society. Yet across the Middle East civil society remains weak. This is due to two factors, both legacies of the Islamic waqf. First, a century is a short time to develop the civic skills that the Islamic waqf left uncultivated for a millennium. The region is still learning how to build politically effective NGOs. And second, the anemic civic life engendered by the Islamic waqf provided fertile ground for the repressive regimes of modern times. The region’s autocracies try systematically to keep civil society politically weak. From the standpoint of liberalization, a hopeful sign is that the region’s current NGOs, unless captured by the state, are serving as founts of civic education. Promoting a culture of bargaining and compromise, they are teaching how to communicate ideas and form coalitions.

This chapter uses a close reading of The Lancet medical journal, and its radical, charismatic editor Thomas Wakley, to delineate the ‘high-water mark’ of Romantic sensibility as an emotional regime. It explores the ways in which Wakley and The Lancet leveraged the emotional politics of contemporary melodrama to critique the alleged nepotism and corruption of the London surgical elites. More especially, it analyses their campaign to expose instances of surgical incompetence at the city’s leading teaching hospitals, demonstrating the ways in which this strategy weaponised the emotions of anger, pity, and sympathy, and considering its implications for the cultural norms of an inchoate profession and for the ultimate stability of the emotional regime of Romantic sensibility.

To what extent are employees in the Mexican judiciary – both judges and lower level officials – connected by family ties? Are these family connections used inappropriately to hire or to favor relatives in ways that would not have been possible absent the family connection? This chapter takes advantage of a unique dataset to answer these questions. It documents a departure from the promise made in the judicial reform of 1994, that by removing the administration of the judiciary from the Supreme Court and transferring it to a judicial council, a professional and meritocratic judicial career would be established for all federal judges, making merit and not connections the main determinants of becoming a judge. The sheer magnitude and pervasiveness of family relationships within the Mexican federal judiciary conspicuously show the limitationsof this reform and highlight the challenges Mexico faces to consolidate judicial careers.

The political and economic landscape in Ireland, the US and the wider world changed during the 1930s moving de Valera and Roosevelt away from a belief in collective security, as represented by the League of Nations, and towards neutrality. This study provides a fresh perspective on the diplomatic relationship investigating the mechanics of its operation and the complex factors that influenced its practice. Irish diplomats in the US worked on behalf of their government to consolidate national legitimacy and independence from Britain while US diplomats in Ireland always considered great power exigencies. The US-British ‘special relationship’ was the most important factor in the US-Irish relationship and not the reverse as de Valera mistakenly believed which was the flaw in his US policy.

This chapter addresses the backgrounds of choirboys of the era and the support network offered by their mother church. Their progress through the ranks, including the peculiarly St-Omer rank of ‘escotier’ aimed at maturing choirboys of limited means, leads the reader through to achievement of their training as vicars, chaplains, masters of the boys and, in a few significant cases, endowed canonries and even the lofty position of cantor. As elsewhere, musical skill could lead to high achievement. Patronage through university training was also an expected part of career support. The highest, or at least most noticeable, talent could lead to impressment into the choirs of the ruling dynasty, in this case that of Burgundy-Habsburg, and glittering careers. The role of direct patronage in such cases of the Habsburgs Mary of Hungary and Charles V is illustrated via the cases of individual St-Omer boys.