The objective of this article is to describe in an exploratory way the type of patronage that exists in Chile and identify the mechanisms that determine it. The typology that will be applied in this article is a classification that has been elaborated in a joint work that is still under development and that are being led by Conrado Ramos, Francisco Panizza and Guy Peters. This typology brings together a significant number of Latin American researchers. Patronage will be understood as that activity where the political appoinments in the administration are made by the political parties in a discretionary manner. A descriptive methodology of mixed character was used, that is, it combined qualitative and quantitative elements. The results show that there is no homogeneous type of patronage in the Chilean public administration. In fact, it varies according to the hierarchical level that is analyzed. Moreover, the role of political parties continues to be important in the designations, although they have lost relevance since the return of democracy in relation to other actors.