The Scarce State
Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland

This book presents a new theory about the power of ostensibly weak states in hinterland regions of the developing world.

Noah L. Nathan (Author)

9781009261128, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 March 2023

310 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.59 kg

'In this theoretically original and empirically rich book, Noah Nathan reveals the outsized impact of rare state interventions on social, economic, and political relations in the hinterlands. Transforming the rhetoric and refocusing the analysis on the scarcity of the state transforms our understanding of governance and government throughout the world.' Margaret Levi, Stanford University

States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact. Isolated state actions in regions where the state is otherwise scarce can have outsize, long-lasting effects on society. 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. 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 book demonstrates how these state-generated societal changes reshaped access to political power, producing dynastic politics, clientelism, and violence. The Scarce State challenges common claims about state-building and state weakness, provides new evidence on the historical origins of inequality, and reconsiders the mechanisms linking historical institutions to contemporary politics.

Part I. Introduction: 1. The politics of state scarcity
2. The large effects of scarce states
3. Northern Ghana's scarce state
Part II. Societal Effects: 4. The origins of inequality
5. Bottom-Up responses to scarcity
Part III. Political Effects: 6. Dynasties
7. Invented chiefs and distributive politics
8. Non-State violence as a state effect
Part IV. Extending the Argument: 9. Shadow cases
10. The paradox of state weakness
Appendix: Qualitative interviews
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB]