•Alternative definitions of clientelism.•Reflections on the impact of clientelism on democracy and state capacity.•The process of change in the incidence of clientelism.•Policies to overcome clientelism.•Under-researched area in the literature. Unlike much of the growing literature on political clientelism, this short paper contains mainly the author’s general reflections on the broad issues of governance (or mis-governance including corruption), democracy and state capacity that clientelism has an impact on. It then analyzes how its incidence changes with the process of development, and the kind of policy issues that it generates. Finally, the paper suggests some research gaps in this literature.