Streszczenie
Wasta (in the Arabic literature wasta) means “intercession” or “mediation”. This concept
covers a wide range of social activities. In the West it is known as clientelism, due to the
existence of an informal relationship between the client (requestor of Wasta-demanding
interest) and the possessor. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Wasta in an Arabic
country through the three dimensions of the social capital (structural, cognitive, relational).
To achieve this aim a theoretical research method was used to analyze Wasta. As a social
mechanism in an Arabic country, Wasta can be considered an example of social capital, due
to the fact that it contains the structural, cognitive and relational dimensions of the social
capital mentioned in the literature.