Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege or financial assistance given by one organization or person to another. In art history, patronage of the arts refers to the support that kings, popes, and empires gave to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors. It may also refer to the right to confer ecclesiastical offices or benefits, on the enterprise transferred to a company by a regular client and on the guardianship of the saints. The word “patron” is derived from Latin: patronus (“boss”), someone who brings benefits to his clients (see patronage in ancient Rome). In addition to presenting the book to the reader, the paratext plays a more complex and significant role in terms of editorial policy, reading and consumer culture. Patronage can be studied as part of advertising strategies, but also as a tool for communication and readership building. Networking was obviously important and complex. We will focus on the impact of patronage on the production, promotion and consumption of books as presented in the paratext and used by printers and publishers as a means of promoting books and attracting symbolic capital. Until the early 1980s, it was dominated by the contrast between traditional dyadic patronage and modern party-controlled clientelism, a distinction derived from the dominant paradigm of modernization.

With a clear focus on development, this approach focused on differences in organizational complexity and derived functionally different aspects from them. Later, during the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, the subscriber list changed the patterns of “patronage”; The aforementioned demonstration of communication and support took place between different interest groups in a more democratic setting, where wealthy merchants and middle-class bourgeois citizens had their place in book production mainly through subscriptions. In the United States, during the Golden Age, favoritism became a controversial issue. Tammany leader William M. Tweed was an American politician who led one of the most corrupt political machines in the country`s history. Tweed and his cronies ruled for a short time with absolute power over the city and state of New York. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third largest landowner in New York City, director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank, and the New York Printing Company, and owner of the Metropolitan Hotel. He has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the New York City Advisory Council, and the New York State Senate.[12] In 1873, Tweed was convicted of embezzling between $40 million and $200 million in public funds. [13] The increasing use of public transport in the face of high demand for car ownership and use remains a major challenge for many developed and developing countries. While some countries are losing the share of public transport in public transport, other countries are bracing for a loss as the prosperity profile makes the car a more affordable mode of transport, lending elements of status and images of “success”.

However, some countries have successfully begun to reverse the downward trend in their market share, mainly through infrastructure investments in bus systems, commonly known as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). BRT gives affordable public transport more visibility and independence from other modes of transport, allowing it to provide a sufficiently competitive level of service with the car to attract and retain a market-segmented clientele. BRT is gaining popularity around the world, especially in Asia, Europe and South America, unlike other forms of public transport (such as light and heavy rail). This is largely due to value for money, service capacity, affordability, relative flexibility and network coverage. This chapter takes stock of its performance and success as an attractive system in support of sustainable transportation ideals. This type of system continues in many areas of the arts. Although the nature of sponsors has changed – from churches to charitable foundations and from aristocrats to plutocrats – the term patronage has a more neutral connotation than in politics. It may simply be the direct (often financial) support of an artist, for example through grants. In the second half of the 20th century, the academic sub-discipline of patronage research began to develop, recognizing the important and often overlooked role that the phenomenon of patronage had played in the cultural life of previous centuries. This discussion can be summarized graphically, as shown in Figures 3.3A to D.

Simply put, public transport can be classified as either local transport (long-distance transport) or local transport (social transport). Some of the latter services are well attended and others less so, as shown in Figure 3.3A. There is currently a general tendency for state governments to redirect resources towards the expansion of public transport and well-used local services, as shown in Figure 3.3B, sometimes at the expense of the level of service in less frequented (local) social transport services. The introduction of MaaS and AEVs is expected to increase pressure on busiest transit services, where demand is highest, and will likely replace them with car/small bus sharing services, especially as they become less driver and cheaper (Figure 3.3C). This development orientation reflects a blurring of the boundaries between the PT as we know it and private transportation. Local transit services with low ridership run the risk of losing all or most services in this context, particularly if governments rely on the market to provide most local PT-type services and expect to do so at low cost (via MaaS with AEV). We see this as a major risk in terms of social exclusion: governments see MaaS/AEV almost as the ultimate deregulation, with the market providing services to all at a very low cost. In our view, this significantly overestimates what might be possible in terms of commercial service offerings in low-volume markets.

Risk is reduced when service delivery agreements are used to ensure continuity of service in one form or another, as explained below. Fare reductions may persist for certain types of passengers, but there may be fewer on-site services if the clientele to which these discounts can be used is poor.