Note to “Patrimonial States”

In the United States – with of course the United States serving as our primary focus given that the United States is where we live and have grown up and where we were born – one informal network replaced another at the helm of the state within the span of about half a century or perhaps even a little less than half a century. We had the neocons for a little while, and as if time flew and went by in a flash and in the blink of an eye, we now have Trump and his informal network at the helm. Now, the question is, can there be a viable third option after having Trump replace and upend one out of the only two existing informal networks which seized state power over the course of about a half century? As we said, such informal networks who then go on to seize state power develop over the course of time. These are perhaps the seedlings of such a development.