The debate on governance originates in the OECD world. At the latest since the postcolonial debate, we know that we need to “test” our assumptions under radically different conditions. This book offers an extended perspective of local self-governance by examining cases from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, together with a study of militias in the USA. The chapters present a wide variety of local actors who pursue different notions of order legitimized by local traditions based on hierarchy or deeply rooted communalism, Islamic theology, or grassroots democracy. Some local actors claim a state-like authority and challenge the territorial state. In such cases, there is no longer “a shadow hierarchy” but opposition to the state. Different violent actors fight for supremacy, and the state is just one actor among others. The empirical studies presented in this book show how different kinds of local self-governance are combined with varieties of statehood, and thus contribute to an understanding of the notion of governance in a fundamental sense that goes beyond the special case of the OECD world.
Author(s): Dieter Neubert, Hans-Joachim Lauth, Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach
Series: Contributions to Political Science
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 200
City: Cham
Contents
Editors and Contributors
Local Self-governance and Varieties of Statehood: Reflections on Tensions and Cooperation
1 Introduction
2 The Governance Debate and Varieties of Statehood
3 A Variety of Local Actors and Varieties of Statehood
4 The Local Setting and the State: An Approximation
5 The Modes of Interaction of the Local Actors or Modes of Local Governance
6 Notions of Order
7 Conclusions
References
US Domestic Militias´ Intersections with Government and Authority: How a Sociology of Individualism Informs Their Praxis
1 Introduction
2 Methods
3 Who Are Militia Members?
4 Militia Ideology
4.1 Race and Nation
4.2 Personal Responsibility and Self-governance
5 Relationship to the Government
5.1 Local Level
5.2 Federal Level
5.3 State Level
6 Exacerbating Factors
6.1 Major Party Affiliation
6.2 Gender
6.3 Unit Type
7 What´s Next?
References
Paradoxes of Local Self-governance: Legitimation Strategies of Rural Councillors Under National and Global Influences in Africa
1 Introduction: Pitfalls of Local Self-organization and Self-governance
2 Decentralization and Support for Self-help Organizations: The Debate
3 Devolution and Self-governance in Rural Ghana: An Actor-Centred Approach
4 Crafting Interfaces Between the Administration, Farmers, and External Entities
4.1 Interfacing the Administration, Self-help Organizations, and Local Farmers
4.2 Interfacing Farmer Groups with External Actors
5 A Broker´s Logic? Implicit Economic Reasoning in Councillors´ Patronage Commitments
6 Conclusion
References
Enacting the Housing Crises Through Self-organization? The Cissie Gool Occupation of Reclaim the City and Its Ambivalent Relat...
1 Introduction
2 Self-organization from the Perspective of Social Movement Theory
3 Reclaim the City: Housing Crisis as Reason for Self-organization
4 Self-organization in an Illegal Occupation: The Cissie Gool House
4.1 Space of Self-organization for Citizens Facing Housing Crisis
4.2 Areas and Forms of Self-organization between Daily Life and Political Activism
Structure and Political Activism
Social Order for the Daily Life in the Occupation
Security and Access to the Occupation
5 The Cissie Gool House and Its Relationship to the Municipality
6 Conclusion
References
What Is ``Local´´ and What Is ``Self´´ in Local Self-Help Organisations, and Can they Work Effectively?: Experiences from the ...
1 Local Self-Organisation between the State and Development Cooperation
2 Local SHOs as Open Systems
3 Permanently Failing or Uniquely Successful: Three Case Studies of Local Self-Organisation
3.1 MINGA: A Success Story?
3.2 Success and Failure Side by Side: Two Small Self-Governed Local Organisations, Amé Taun and the Ceramistas
3.3 Local Organisations with a Political Mandate: Comités de Vigilancia-Public Security on Grassroots Level
4 What Is Local, What Is Self in Local Self-Help Organisations?
References
Pathalgadi Movement, Self-Governance, and the Question of `Weak Statehood´
1 Introduction
2 `The Rules of Recognition´: Constitutional and Legal Frameworks
3 Village Ganarajya/Sovereign Village Republics
4 Competitive Sovereignties, Local Self-Governance, and Statehood
References
Samaj as a Form of Self-Organisation among Village Communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
1 Introduction
2 Self-Organisation in Bangladesh
3 The Chittagong Hill Tracts: Conflict, Peace, and Self-Organisation
4 `Meyachara Samaj´: Samaj as a (Trans-)Local Form of Self-Organisation
5 Samaj Organisation
6 Temple, Rituals, and Samaj
7 Solidarity, Collaboration, and Conflict
8 Conclusion
References
Jihadi Governance in Northern Mali: Socio-Political Orders in Contest
1 Introduction
2 The Research on Political Evolution in the Kidal Region
3 Theoretical Concepts
4 Empirical Findings
5 Concluding Remarks
References
Cyrenaica Contemporary: Politics, Identity, and Justice in Times of Transition
1 Introduction
2 Politics in Cyrenaica: State, Non-state, and Political Economy
3 The Making of Identity in Cyrenaica
4 Politics, Practices, and Understandings of Justice
5 Final Remarks
References
Local Self-Governance and Varieties of Statehood: Some Remarks from an Ancient Historian
References
Primary Sources
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