Utilizing an expert survey, the aim of this study was to analyse patronage networks and their impact on social mobility in Kosovo. The research found that patronage in the country is pervasive and it hampers social mobility.
Solidarity with one’s kin, family, party, friends, or colleagues takes precedence over reward for performance. The motivation of youngsters to work hard for a career weakens, as does the trust in the very structures of the state, even before the new country’s foundations have adequately been built. Kosovo is slowly moving towards ‘state capture’, which is defined as ‘excessive exploitation of public resources by this becomes part of ‘an irreversible process’ whereby control is used for further control, perpetuating the abuse of public resources by an elite that reproduces itself at all levels of governance the ruling elite.
