عنوان

Domination and personal legitimacy in a district of eastern Liberia

شماره

TLets529372

عنوان اصلي

Domination and personal legitimacy in a district of eastern Liberia

نام عام مواد

[Thesis]

نام نخستين پديدآور

Brown, D. W.

نام ناشر، پخش کننده و غيره

The University of Manchester

تاریخ نشرو بخش و غیره

1979

جزئيات پايان نامه و نوع درجه آن

Ph.D.

کسي که مدرک را اعطا کرده

The University of Manchester

امتياز متن

1979

متن يادداشت

The study is concerned with the relationships between thelegitimation of the State and the legitimation of the statusof the individual in an administrative district of EasternLiberia.There are three sections. In the first, background dataessential to the exposition of the main theme is presented.The history of the District in the period prior to, andfollowing, the establishment of Liberian rule is reviewed(Chapter 2), to show the ways in which the political structure,of the region was conducive to a colonial-style occupation,and to a process of incorporation involving minimum accommodationto existing interests. Present-day economic conditionsare reviewed (Chapter 3) to establish the low level of socializationof the relations of production, and the limited extent ofthe penetration of market forces into the District. It isargued, however, that the District has not remained isolatedin other ways from forces emanating from the State, and thatincorporation has involved extraction of value on a considerablescale, in the name of the Liberian government. Three types oftransfer (taxation, labour and land) are considered, whichsubstantiate this theme (Chapter 4).The following section (Section B) is concerned with theways in which these relationships of imbalance are stabilizedand legitimated. First, the role of administrative employmentin the process of incorporation is considered, focussing onthe manner in which the allocation of resources, vis-a-visthe redistribution of wealth by the State, appears to be patterned according to a set of 'rules' of politicalcompetition (Chapters 5 and 6). These rules both introducean element of predictability into government affairs, andyet, paradoxically, force the local population to accept aconsiderable degree of uncertainty in their relations withthe government. In Chapter 7, consideration is given to themanner in which influences referred to in preceding chaptersfoster an idiosyncratic image of 'government' in the District,an image which serves both to extend the sphere of bureaucraticinfluence into the community and to create legitimacyfor the established order, thereby.The two subsequent chapters are concerned, firstly, withthe ways in which communitarian sentiments tend to becomea focus for a counter-culture which draws upon the tribal -civilized contrast implicit in the dominant ideology of theState, and with the ways in which the politically divisiveimplications of this tendency are mitigated by forces at thelocal level (Chapter 8). Secondly, the manner in whichChristianity in the District tends to support, rather thanchallenge, existing political relations is established(Chapter 9).Finally, (Section C), an extended case-study concerninga congressional election and an important political trial whichfollowed this election is examined, to illustrate the ways inwhich the themes considered in the previous chapters relate tothe actual processes of politics at the local level. It isargued that political trials such as the one under considerationfunction as important ritual events. The necessity for suchrituals is related both to factors discussed earlier in the study and to conventional theory of ritual. It is suggestedthat contradictions exist within the structure of 'rules'fostered by the central government, and that the latteremploys ritual techniques to segregate out from thisstructure those roles and relationships which are, at anyone time, conducive to the maintenance of its interests inthe hinterland.

مستند نام اشخاص تاييد نشده

Brown, D. W.

مستند نام تنالگان تاييد نشده

The University of Manchester

نام الکترونيکي

فرمت انتشار

p

نوع ماده

[Thesis]

کد کاربرگه

276903

سطح دسترسي

a

تكميل شده

Y