Where social organisations command real loyalty, the state cannot impose its rules however formidable it appears on paper.
Migdal's 1988 argument. It explains why states with impressive formal apparatus fail to collect taxes or enforce law where lineages, sects or landowners hold the real claim on loyalty.
In practice
- A tax authority with modern systems collects a fraction of what is due in a province where the landowner settles disputes and everyone knows it.
- A head office with elaborate policies finds the depot runs on the depot manager's rules, and the policies describe nothing.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works