Extraction and Social Institutions

• In Event: Political Economy of Local Public Goods Provision

Abstract

Why do some communities raise local revenue, engage in collective actions to provide secure environments, build roads and schools and create other goods that promote human development, while others fail to do so? These questions are key for policy makers, development specialists, and others who seek to improve the lives of millions who suffer from violence, poor education, unattended illnesses, and lost opportunities at the hands of corrupt leaders. In this essay, we examine literature from anthropology, economics, history, and political science, to gain a better understanding of the role that social institutions play in the extraction of labor and material resources, and the development of formal fiscal structures. In doing so, we consider the extraction at the national and local levels, mobilized via state institutions, traditional authorities and social norms. We make that case that understanding resource mobilization requires going beyond the focus on state-driven revenue extraction that dominates the literature on taxation, and requires, as well, careful attention to the ways in which overlapping authorities and institutions structure these processes. The essay aims to contribute to our understanding of resource extraction and also open up new arenas of inquiry.

Authors

• Lise Rakner, University of Bergen

• Ellen M. Lust, University of Gothenburg