Clientelism in the Greek Cypriot Community of Cyprus under British Rule

Abstract

As most Greek Cypriots identify with Greece at least culturally, one would expect the political culture of contemporary Cyprus to be more or less the same as that of mainland Greece. However, this is not the case. Cyprus possesses more features of a Western European country than Greece and fewer signs of their common Ottoman heritage. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that this is to a great extent the outcome of social and political developments in Cyprus during the 82 years of British rule. This social and political change in Cyprus during this period is best understood by analysing clientelism which is a feature shared by all the countries of the former Ottoman Empire.