ROYAL AND SEIGNEURIAL PATRONAGE NETWORKS TOWARDS THE END OF THE OLD-REGIME - CASE-STUDIES ON SPAIN

Instead of focusing, in a centralist perspective, on the institutional aspects of State formation, this paper turns the attention towards th e complex set of interactions between institutions and patronage netwo rks in the relations between the Crown, the royal tribunals and admini strations, the seigneurial aristocracy and the local elites. From the 18th century, political changes implied a profound restructuring of th e patronage networks of both the seigneurial aristocracy and the Crown . Influential local notables not only adapted dynamically to changing political conditions, but contributed themselves to shape them. The cr isis of the Old Regime and the establishment of a liberal political or der consecrated their power over the formal state structures. The pape r concludes that their way of reorganizing patronage networks was not the characteristic of an archaic rural world, but, on the contrary, an efficient and rational strategy to participate in the political trans formations.