Competition and Clientelism. The Institute for Social Research´s Theory of the Racket

The text discusses the notion of racket, as it has been developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s by members of the exiled Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. Its focus lies in the idea that personal dependence and direct, personal domination, thought to have been abolished in liberalism, reemerge in a different form. Thus, the text at first discusses some examples of how these new social ties were conceptualized by early thinkers of modern society. Then the ambivalent Marxian critique of this concept is discussed, and finally, central concepts of the institute´s theory of the racket are scrutinized, and how they can serve as a framework for discussions on corruption and clientelism.