Where does broker collide?

A local go-between who links ordinary voters to politicians or the state, delivering favors, jobs, or cash in return for votes and political support. James Scott's 1972 Patron-client politics and political change in Southeast Asia set out how such brokers sit in the middle of patron-client chains and turn private benefits into political loyalty. Stokes, Dunning, Nazareno, and Brusco's 2013 Brokers, voters, and clientelism built the modern theory and evidence, treating the broker as the agent who monitors and turns out clients for a party machine. This referent is a relationship of exchange and obligation studied by its effect on turnout and vote-buying, distinct from a market dealer, a bridging network position, or a software component.[1][2]

Unit

One go-between linking voters to a party or patron

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

By votes mobilized, favors distributed, and the size of a broker's client following

An actor who sits between two or more groups that are otherwise poorly connected and who gains advantage from controlling the flow of information and resources across that gap. Gould and Fernandez's 1989 Structures of mediation formalized this by sorting brokerage into distinct roles depending on which groups the go-between links. Burt's 1992 Structural holes made it the center of a theory of competition, arguing that the person who spans a hole between disconnected clusters captures novel information and control benefits. Here the broker is a structural position measured by network statistics such as betweenness and constraint, not a paid market agent, a local political fixer, or a messaging component in software.[3][4]

Unit

One actor occupying a bridging position between groups

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

By network statistics such as betweenness centrality, constraint, and counts of brokerage roles