PATRONAGE AND BUREAUCRACY IN THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM, 1840–1893

Authors

Colin Newbury, Linacre College, Oxford UniversityFollow

Abstract

The government of the Hawaiian monarchy operated as a patrimonial system until constitutional change in 1887 restricted the power of the king to control executive, legislative, and judicial institutions. Ministers, governors, senior offi- cials, legislators, and judges owed their positions to royal favor and influence, thus continuing for Hawaiian and foreign “service gentry” the practices of the pre-1840 kingdom by valuing loyalty higher than efficiency or selection by com- petition. At a second level, patronage by governors and senior officials expanded the ranks of those executives who ran public finance, land administration, in- ternal trade, education, police, and the judiciary. The records of the Ministry of the Interior, which undertook most government business and worked through island governors, testify to the widespread prevalence of appointments through influence and the gradual formation of a more permanent set of civil servants who bridged the period between monarchy and provisional government in the early 1890s. Royal patronage became departmental patronage open to new forms of political manipulation.

Recommended Citation

Newbury, Colin (2001) "PATRONAGE AND BUREAUCRACY IN THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM, 1840–1893," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 24: No. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol24/iss1/1