In this contribution, I build upon Alex de Waal’s notion of the 'politcal marketplace' to explore structural patterns of politics in Chad. I argue that the Chadian political marketplace is characterized by five main patterns: externally-derived rents, the gap between politico-military entrepreneurs and the cheap combatant labor force who participate in “rent-seeking” rebellions, a violent mode of governing associated with a decentralized control over the instruments of coercion, the structural weakness of the civilian opposition trapped between repression and cooptation, as well as the exclusion of women.