Patrimonial rule relies on symbolic kinship and patronage networks

Evidence

In early modern Europe, and certainly in the postcolonial Third World, these tend generally to parade one or another sort of patrimonialism, entailing more or less elaborate and confining relations of patronage, and often depending upon the symbolism, if not the reality, of kinship: godfatherhoods, brotherhoods, fictive ‘families’ of all kinds. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1594

Categorization

• XREF: Patronage substituting for trust dovetails with the reader’s Hardin point — fictive kinship is a coded proxy for observability within the group.