The following review excerpt clarifies the feudal/patrimonial distinctions.
[In Pipes' view], Russia differed from all other European countries because, even after the monumental attempt of Peter the Great to transform it in conformity with the Western model, its rulers clung stubbornly and immutably to their own autocratic privileges instead of evolving along representative and democratic lines. In an influential book, Russia Under the Old Regime, which appeared in 1974, Pipes expounded a wide-ranging theory that endeavored to explain this anomaly. Briefly stated, it was a view of Russian society as being "patrimonial," a term initially used by Hobbes and then taken over and amplified by Weber. What it means is that when "the prince organizes his political power ... in the same essential manner as he does his authority over his household, there we speak of a patrimonial state structure." The czar thus "owned" everything within the state, which was simply considered his own property. No one individual or group had any right to counteract his power, nor was any distinction made between society and the state. Such a regime is different from despotism because "a despot violates his subjects' property rights; a patrimonial ruler does not even acknowledge their existence." In his new book Pipes cites Machiavelli, who in the sixteenth century contrasted the sultan of Turkey with the king of France by pointing out that the former was "a ruler who treated his subjects like slaves"; and Russia was much closer to Turkey in this respect than to any European country. This "patrimonial" mentality continued to dominate Russian politics up through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and seems to have found a new lease on life under Vladimir Putin. Other factors also enter, such as the submissive habits inculcated by the Mongol conquest of Russia for two centuries (and, by contrast, the influence of Roman law on European monarchies). Even feudalism in the West played a part, because it involved a contract between lord and vassal, with mutual obligations on both sides that theoretically placed restraints on the power of the lord -- something totally unknown in Russia. But it was the control of the purse strings that made the most crucial difference. A whole host of authorities, beginning in the thirteenth century, are cited by Pipes to illustrate "the sanctity of private property [as] an axiom of European political thought and practice."
Briefly stated, it was a view of Russian society as being "patrimonial," a term initially used by Hobbes and then taken over and amplified by Weber. What it means is that when "the prince organizes his political power ... in the same essential manner as he does his authority over his household, there we speak of a patrimonial state structure." The czar thus "owned" everything within the state, which was simply considered his own property. No one individual or group had any right to counteract his power, nor was any distinction made between society and the state. Such a regime is different from despotism because "a despot violates his subjects' property rights; a patrimonial ruler does not even acknowledge their existence." In his new book Pipes cites Machiavelli, who in the sixteenth century contrasted the sultan of Turkey with the king of France by pointing out that the former was "a ruler who treated his subjects like slaves"; and Russia was much closer to Turkey in this respect than to any European country. This "patrimonial" mentality continued to dominate Russian politics up through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and seems to have found a new lease on life under Vladimir Putin.
Other factors also enter, such as the submissive habits inculcated by the Mongol conquest of Russia for two centuries (and, by contrast, the influence of Roman law on European monarchies). Even feudalism in the West played a part, because it involved a contract between lord and vassal, with mutual obligations on both sides that theoretically placed restraints on the power of the lord -- something totally unknown in Russia. But it was the control of the purse strings that made the most crucial difference. A whole host of authorities, beginning in the thirteenth century, are cited by Pipes to illustrate "the sanctity of private property [as] an axiom of European political thought and practice."
You seem to bring him up a lot. Which is fine. So long as you read him with a critical eye and an understanding of his glorious past and and life-long crusade regarding Russia. :) That man is a piece or work...
(Totally OT: given all this discussion of the patrimonial system in Russia, I thought I'd throw in the fact that in Tsarist Russia, property was passed down through women, and Russian women had remarkable property ownership rights compared to much of the western world. I know that isn't how you are using "patrimonial," exactly. But worth mentioning in all this talk of "patrimony.") "Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky
I thought I'd throw in the fact that in Tsarist Russia, property was passed down through women, and Russian women had remarkable property ownership rights compared to much of the western world.
How much did the educated class of small nobles help the Bolshevik revolution?
The Russians found an effective way to concentrate wealth anyway. When you think about it, a "side" effect of most libertarian policies is always concentration of wealth, no matter how randomly.
