From Our Side Rules Are Followed

Authorizing bureaucracy in Nepal's 'permanent transition

Bibliographic Data

ID3628580
AuthorsSarah Byrne (0009-0002-8607-2429, University of Zurich, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume52
Issue3
Pages971-1000
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x1600055x
OpenAlexW2809487268
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited41

This article explores how local civil servants produce the conditions of possibility for bureaucratic authority in Nepal's contested political environment of war and post-war 'transition'. Specifically, it examines the everyday practices of local civil servants as they attempt to influence the distribution of such public resources as agricultural inputs and local government budgets. The article asks: how do local civil servants produce the authority necessary to get things done in the face of changing local government structuresandrival authority claims frombothwartime Maoist People's Governments and resurgent patronage politics in the post-war period? In a context characterized as 'ordinary extraordinary', the article suggests that local civil servants employ a form of practice that has been termed 'tactical government' and proposes three distinct forms of this practice. However, the article also argues that tactical practice tells only part of the story and that it can be insightful to enrich our understanding of tactical government with an analysis of more general life projects. Bureaucratic practices are also motivated by factors such as the significance of the contested resource and paternal ideas of 'the common good'. Such a suggestion is in line with recent work on everyday lives in situations of protracted violent conflict and insecurity, and on the role of culture in producing civil servants/services. Looking at these two forms of practice together, in particular their interconnections, gives us a fuller account of how authority is produced. Furthermore, it allows more nuanced and detailed perspectives into the complex process of state-making

Bureaucracy · Civil servants · Context (archaeology · Geography · Government (linguistics · Local government · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Public Administration · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nepal

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