This paper will address the question: what explains the persistence of clientelism under conditions of internationally led state-building? This research question is inspired by two recent turns in the state-building literature, both of which depart from the ‘institutionalist’ approach to the subject. The first has called for a shift away from an analysis of formal state structures and towards state-society relations. Based upon empirical findings indicating that societies subject to international state-building tend to develop governance structures that diverge from the liberal democratic blueprint, the second calls for a new lens with which to analyse political behaviour: informal institutions. The paper is interested in the informal norms and practices that drive interactions between state and society and deviate from those prescribed by the formal state. It focuses on the type and extent of this deviation in Kosovo, a state that has undergone extensive internationally led state-building for over a decade.
