This study of the public goods dilemma explains how the present system of compulsory taxation helps to breed the parasitic "free riding" it is meant to suppress. The author argues that in the absence of taxation, many public goods would be provided by spontaneous group co-operat…
Anthropology of the state: a reader
by Gupta, Akhil, Sharma, Aradhana
fromBlackwell readers in anthropology
This innovative reader brings together classic theoretical texts and cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of 'the state'.
Examines empire networks throughout history and in the present day, arguing that key issues within the new world order may enable significant social transformation and global democracy.
China’s economic growth has transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world to its second largest economy. The drivers of growth remain elusive, as the country is affected by both its transition from central planning and the challenges of a developing country. This …
A major realignment is taking place in the way we understand the state in Indonesia. New studies on local politics, ethnicity, the democratic transition, corruption, Islam, popular culture, and other areas hint at novel concepts of the state, though often without fully articula…
With case-studies drawn from Mozambique, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, this title provides a critical and historically informed analysis of the NGO movement, humanitarian intervention, sustainable development, human security, coherence, fragile states, migration and the place of rac…
The book builds on an important emergent body of discussion which questions, both empirically and theoretically, the conventional neoclassical doctrine that economies are more efficient if the state withdraws from it. It develops a “space-time” approach to state theory as a way …
In 1974 India exploded an atomic device. In May 1998 the new right-wing BJP Government set off several more, encountering in the process domestic plaudits, but also international condemnation and possibly sparking a new nuclear arms race in South Asia. What explains the enthusia…