The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland Nathan Noah L.
The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland Nathan Noah L. States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Isolated state actions in regions where the state is…
Specifikacia The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland Nathan Noah L.
The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland Nathan Noah L.
States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Isolated state actions in regions where the state is otherwise scarce can have outsize, long-lasting effects on society. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact.
Drawing on a historical natural experiment, the book shows how the contemporary economic and political elite emerged in Ghana's hinterland, linking interventions by an ostensibly weak state to new socio-economic inequality and grassroots efforts to reimagine traditional institutions. The Scarce State reframes our understanding of the political economy of hinterlands through a multi-method study of Northern Ghana alongside shadow cases from other world regions. The book demonstrates how these state-generated societal changes reshaped access to political power, producing dynastic politics, clientelism, and violence.
The Scare State challenges common claims