Analysing the repertoire of power impact of primarily economic and political instruments preferred by postcolonial leading actors, a banal idea comes that the economic dominance of individual countries and macro-regions becomes crucial because of creating the prerequisites for redistributive gains or competitive advantages. These advantages can be called "leadership rent". This concept borrowed from the political economy literature demonstrates that the group of developed countries predetermines the nature and pace of development of the world economy and acts as a natural "centre of gravitation" to emerging economies.

These centres of gravitation often use personalised relations between the dominant and the dependent; and, it is usually attributed to cultural grounds. I'm trying to use patron-client relations as an explanatory model. My argument comes from the observation that since patronage supposes to be imprinted in polity behaviour and affects the way how these polities represent their interests, this instrument is utilised by leaders-patrons linked to their clients by the strong historical and cultural ties resilient to radical political transformations.

So the question is could we stretch the concept of patronage from electoral behavior to a strategy for acquiring, maintaining, and exacerbating political power from patrons? Are there any important research that I possibly miss?