Revisiting Max Weber in the Countryside of Timor-Leste: The Construction of Local Governance after Independence

• In Event: 130. The Transformation of Religion, Culture and Society in Timor-Leste. Sponsored by the AAS Southeast Asia Council (SEAC)

Abstract

Max Weber (1922) famously proposed a tripartite classification of legitimate authority considering “traditional”, “charismatic” and “legal-rational” forms of power. Excepting “charismatic leadership” which may emerge in any given context, most readings of Weber assume an historical evolution from “traditional” to “legal-rational” forms of authority. However, in current Timor-Leste, one witnesses the simultaneous presence of all three types of political legitimacy. On the one hand, recent literature has stressed that, after independence, a trend emerged to reinforce hitherto repressed forms of culture, including fundamental notions of legitimacy in the political arena. On the other, the national authorities have embarked on a “state-building” exercise based on a modern template (with roots in late colonialism and in the period of Indonesian occupation, albeit with significant innovations to guarantee its abidance by democratic standards). Among the efforts devoted at “state-building”, local governance assumes a critical role that finds its justification in the country’s constitution. This essay looks at two different levels of local governance – the novel “municipalities” which are currently undergoing the process of formalization, and represent an attempt to impose “legal-rational” principles paying little or no tribute to customary forms of governance; and the “perennial suku” authorities, a governance level where the role of customary legitimation finds room to express itself at the cost of being formally separated from the realm of “state administration”. A brief final section reflects on the implications of the empirical analysis.

Author

• Rui Graça Feijó, University of Coimbra