State, Power, Anarchism, A Discussion of The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
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Authors
Clunan, Anne
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Date of Issue
2011-03-15
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Abstract
James Scott’s volume is a broad, compelling paean to the
political agency and power of those who have been written
out of history as backward and premodern—the people
who resist states and create alternative forms of social
and political governance. It is a cautionary tale for policymakers,
scholars, military planners, and would-be state
builders about the limits of state power and legitimacy,
but also something of a guidebook on how to tame them.
Scott’s eulogy for polymorphous human societies appears
premature, however, given the many alternatively governed
structures currently enabled by geographical remoteness,
population density, globalization, and the state itself.
The Art of Not Being Governed is troubling, less because it
questions the morality of the state as a sociopolitical form
than because it romanticizes nonstate peoples who seek
violently to repel and escape the state.
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Article
Description
The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S153759271000335X
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National Security Affairs
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Citation
Review Symposium: State, Power, Anarchism, Perspectives on Politics / Volume 9 / Issue 01 / March 2011, pp 99-102
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.