Abstract
The Art of Not Being Governed illustrates that the people of highland South East Asia were not primitive people “left behind” but instead chose their lifestyles in order to avoid the predation of lowland states. This raises the question of how these people who are ungoverned by nation states provide governance for themselves. We explore this question with two related case studies. One examines a nineteenth century Southern Indian banking caste that provided self-governance. The other examines modern-day stateless Somalia.
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Notes
See Powell and Stringham (2009) for a survey of this literature.
Many attempts to install a government have failed. There have been weak governments that have controlled portions of Mogadishu but have not expanded their control outside the city. Somaliland and Puntland in the north are not functioning governments but mostly exist on paper. See Powell et al. (2008) for a discussion of this.
Our discussion of Somali law draws on the work of Van Notten (2005).
For instance, see Little (2003).
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Powell, B., Nair, M. On the governance of “not being governed”. Rev Austrian Econ 25, 9–16 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-010-0105-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-010-0105-5