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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Seen from Below: Conceptions of Politics and the State in a Botswana Village
Author:Helle-Valle, JoISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:72
Issue:2
Pages:179-202
Language:English
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:political systems
local politics
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556987
Abstract:Based on the contentions that rules cannot determine practice, and that the Sate is only a composite reality that needs to be analysed as a part of a wider sociocultural totality, this article investigates how the State, as government and political practice, functions in a village in Botswana. Consequently, lay villagers' attitudes to the State and hence the issue of legitimacy become focal points in discussion. It is argued that what is conceptualized by most villagers as the State is not co-extensive with its formal boundaries. Rather, it is associated with that which is 'modern' or 'European' and hence seen to be alien. This means not that the State is conceptualized in merely negative terms but rather that it achieves its legitimacy less on ideological grounds than from its role as a generous patron. This is due to the State's extraordinary wealth. It is argued that this form of legitimacy to some extent defines the roles it can play and makes it in some ways vulnerable but, on the other hand, enables the State to buy time to develop a political and administrative system that steers it clear of the common miseries that most other African States face. The study is based on a year's fieldwork between 1990 and 1998 in the medium-sized village of Letlhakeng. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and French.
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