Difference between revisions of "Enchufismo (Spain)"

|style="font-size:1.1em;"| ''Enchufismo'' is the practice of granting positions, jobs, assignments, recommendations, resources or benefits through kinship, friendship or political relations, regardless of the merits of the candidates. The term is commonly used in Spain to capture the use of personal networks to overcome constraints in numerous contexts. The term derives from the verb ''enchufar'' that literally means to plug-in, and is synonymous with the verb ''conectar'', to connect. The image below highlights the metaphor of connectivity to someone who has ''enchufe'', a socket, in order to get access to a good position, usually through family or close friendship or their networks.

|style="font-size:1.1em;"| ''Enchufismo'' is the practice of granting positions, jobs, assignments, recommendations, resources or benefits through kinship, friendship or political relations, regardless of the merits of the candidates. The term is commonly used in Spain to capture the use of personal networks to overcome constraints in numerous contexts. The term derives from the verb ''enchufar'' that literally means to plug-in, and is synonymous with the verb ''conectar'', to connect. The image below highlights the metaphor of connectivity to someone who has ''enchufe'', a socket, in order to get access to a good position, usually through family or close friendship or their networks.

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The term ''enchufismo'' has an advantage of a powerful metaphor while being semantically close to other pejorative terms such as nepotism, favoritism and ''amiguismo'' (Muñoz 2011). There are many metaphorical terms in Latin America with similar meaning. To have [[palanca]], or lever, in Cuba, El Salvador or Dominican Republic refers to the ability or influence to obtain something  (RAE 2020c). To have ''muñeca'', or wrist, implies support by an influential person in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru or Uruguay (RAE 2020b). ''Enchufismo'' is also similar to cronyism and nepotist practices, such as the Chilean [[pituto]], the Italian [[raccomandazione]], [[pulling the strings]] in Anglo-Saxon settings, or ''avea o pilă'' practices in Romania (Fradejas-García, Molina, and Lubbers 2022). The term is perhaps more general as it combines both family and friendship, as well as embraces both personal and professional contexts. A recent survey on business perceptions shows that the practices of favouring friends and/or family members in public institutions in Spain is the second highest in the EU (54%) only behind Portugal (59%) and significantly different from the EU average (42%) (Eurobarometer 2019).

The term ''enchufismo'' has an advantage of a powerful metaphor while being semantically close to other pejorative terms such as nepotism, favoritism and ''amiguismo'' (Muñoz 2011). There are many metaphorical terms in Latin America with similar meaning. To have [[palanca]], or lever, in Cuba, El Salvador or Dominican Republic refers to the ability or influence to obtain something  (RAE 2020c). To have ''muñeca'', or wrist, implies support by an influential person in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru or Uruguay (RAE 2020b). ''Enchufismo'' is also similar to cronyism and nepotist practices, such as the Chilean [[pituto]], the Italian [[raccomandazione]], [[pulling the strings]] in Anglo-Saxon settings, or ''avea o pilă'' practices in Romania (Fradejas-García, Molina, and Lubbers 2022). The term is perhaps more general as it combines both family and friendship, as well as embraces both personal and professional contexts. A recent survey on business perceptions shows that the practices of favouring friends and/or family members in public institutions in Spain is the second highest in the EU (54%) only behind Portugal (59%) and significantly different from the EU average (42%) (Eurobarometer 2019).