1932

Abstract

Research in political science on traditional authorities has advanced quickly in the past decade, highlighting the diversity of these institutions and how variation among them affects political outcomes. However, existing research often fails to distinguish between three distinct attributes of these institutions: their de facto power, their downward accountability to the communities they lead, and their recognition by the state. This review demonstrates the importance of these conceptual distinctions by showing that they are empirically distinct concepts, that they have separate causes, and that they have different political effects. In particular, existing research shows that powerful traditional authorities increase collective action to provide local public goods, but state recognition of traditional institutions is important for improving conflict resolution, and their own downward accountability conditions their effect on the accountability of elected representatives.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-070723-012434
2025-01-06
2025-06-13
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-070723-012434
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error