Based on ethnographic reanalysis and on current qualitative research on politics and the poor, this paper argues that routine patronage politics and non-routine collective action should be seen not as opposite and conflicting political phenomena but as dynamic processes that often establish recursive relationships. Through a series of case studies conducted in contemporary Argentina, the paper examines four instances in which patronage and collective action intersect and interact: network breakdown, employer?s certification, covert support, and reaction to threats. These four scenarios show that more than two opposing spheres of action or two different forms of sociability, patronage, and the politics of protest can be interlocked. Either when it malfunctions or when it thrives, clientelism may lie at the root of collective action.