Patchwork Leviathan: Interstitial Bureaucracy and Statecraft in Ghana

• In Event: 522 - Section on Sociology of Development Paper Session. Emerging Issues in the Sociology of Development

Abstract

States, particularly in the global South, have great internal variation in their administrative capacities and organizational cultures. Even in states conventionally regarded as weak, Weberian-style bureaucracy flourishes in interstices—relatively distinct niches embedded within sometimes-adverse dominant patronage and patrimonial institutions. Interstices incubate a concentration of distinctive values, practices, and cultural tools that are unconventional within the larger state administrative apparatus. An interstitial approach underscores how fragile, unusual, and deviant practices of Weberian bureaucracy can be when non-dominant, analyzing how niches cultivate divergent practices, cope with interruptions from the surrounding environment, and protect vulnerable interstitial practices. This paper develops a theory of the general institutional consequences of interstitiality, with particular application to the institution of Weberian bureaucracy, wherein interstitial insiders experience the bureaucratic ethos as an active cultural and institutional project requiring heroic commitment. Using interview, observational and documentary data from cases in the Ghanaian central state, including more than 100 interviews, I illustrate five ways subcultural embeddedness of emergent bureaucracy alters the conventional characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy.

Author

• Erin Metz McDonnell, Notre Dame