Despite increasingly programmatic politics and competitive elections, political clientelism remains an enduring feature of African politics. More so, while politicians rarely deliver on political promises, citizens continue to demand and participate in patron–client relations. While moral economy and instrumentalist accounts offer insight into the puzzling persistence of political clientelism, we offer an additional framework based on demands for social recognition. Beyond expectations of materialist exchange or the performance of cultural norms, citizens expect their political leaders to recognize them as dignified human beings and members of an identity group. Drawing on evidence from three diverse African contexts—urban Ghana, rural Senegal, and coastal Kenya—we argue that citizens engage in political clientelism as a vehicle for demanding three dimensions of social recognition: (i) To be seen and heard by leaders, (ii) to be respected as agents in the political process, and (iii) to be politically included and protected from harm. By providing new insights into the enduring logics of clientelism, citizen strategies amidst unequal power relationships, and the role of emotions in democratic politics, we aim to reconcile existing approaches and bring them into a more unified framework.

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要求认可：政治庇护主义研究的新框架

尽管越来越多的程序化政治和竞争性选举，政治庇护主义仍然是非洲政治的一个持久特征。更重要的是，虽然政客们很少兑现政治承诺，但公民继续要求并参与庇护人与客户的关系。虽然道德经济学和工具主义的解释提供了对政治庇护主义令人费解的持久性的洞察，但我们提供了一个基于社会认可需求的额外框架。除了对唯物主义交流或文化规范表现的期望之外，公民还期望他们的政治领导人承认他们是有尊严的人和身份群体的成员。借鉴来自三个不同非洲背景的证据——加纳城市、塞内加尔农村、和肯尼亚沿海地区——我们认为，公民将政治庇护主义作为一种工具来要求社会认可的三个维度：(i) 被领导人看到和听到，(ii) 作为政治进程中的代理人受到尊重，以及 (iii) ) 在政治上被包容并受到保护免受伤害。通过对依附主义的持久逻辑、不平等权力关系中的公民策略以及情绪在民主政治中的作用提供新的见解，我们旨在调和现有方法并将它们纳入一个更统一的框架。