quasifeudal

Quasifeudal is a term used in sociology, political economy, and development studies to describe social and economic relations that resemble feudalism—characterized by hierarchical authority, binding obligations, and the extraction of surplus from subordinate groups—while operating within a modern state and capitalist economy.

Core features often cited include concentrated land or resource ownership by a small elite, patronage and clientelist networks linking rulers to dependents, and forms of labor extraction such as rent, debt bondage, or sharecropping that resemble feudal dues. Even as formal law recognizes private property and market exchange, power and wealth are distributed in ways that reproduce feudal-like dependencies, restrict mobility, and shield elites from competition. Legal and administrative instruments may legitimize or mask coercive practices, creating a quasifeudal legal-political economy rather than historical feudalism itself.

Scholars use quasifeudal to critique narratives of linear economic development, arguing that feudal-like relations can persist or re-emerge in contemporary settings under conditions of weak governance, high inequality, or when political power is exercised through patronage. It is a descriptive, not a precise legal category, and is not tied to a single time period or country. The term is often employed as a comparative device to emphasize continuities between historic feudalism and certain modern arrangements of property, labor, and political power.