I use the terms politician or political entrepreneur to mean any individual seeking to obtain or retain elected office. Among
politicians, I distinguish between candidates (those who seek to obtain office) and incumbents (those who seek to retain office).
In patronage democracies, those who have the capital to launch a political career tend to be “elites,” i.e., upwardly mobile middle-class individuals, better educated and better off than the voters whom they seek to mobilize.
I use the term “elite” interchangeably, therefore, with the terms “politician,” “candidate,” “incumbent,” and “entrepreneur” in this chapter.