How have State Projects failed: The Clash of Two Eyes of the State

• In Event: Science, Knowledge & Technology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8: Shifting Technologies of State Knowledge and Power

Abstract

This paper seeks to refine James Scott’s explanation for the failure of state projects. In Seeing Like a State, Scott argues that state-building projects fail due to the tension between high modernist legibility and local mētis. However, since Scott’s theory primarily targets the formative stage of the modern state, this paper interrogates a new theoretical puzzle: in a mature state with a stable administrative system, do projects still fail primarily due to conflicts with local knowledge? Drawing on empirical evidence from China’s “Rural Toilet Revolution” (launched in 2016), I argue that while the dilemma of legibility persists in mature state-building, its root cause lies in a structural element overlooked by Scott: an internal contradiction between the state’s dual modes of spatial logic—boundary and mobility. The conflict between the state’s administrative logic, which relies on a static understanding of society within fixed boundaries, and its developmental logic, which actively generates social fluidity, renders state projects unable to effectively target their subjects. Consequently, the state labors to establish order within a "hollowed-out container," while the socio-economic life it has fostered spills over the very boundaries it seeks to police.

Author

• Hui Pan, Boston College