Toward an Anthropology of Government

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 1-27

3. Nationhood by Negation

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 29-51

4. Inside the Iron Cage

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 53-73

5. Speaking for the Nation

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 75-101

6. The Transparency of Democracy

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 103-121

7. Ballots and Bombs

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 123-150

8. Cross-Pollinated Sovereignties

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 151-169

9. A Parliament for Wales

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 171-183

10. Back Matter

    Pages 185-216

    PDF

The National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999, granting the people of Wales a parliament for the first time in nearly six centuries. The Assembly was intended to create a parliamentary culture of open, inclusive, and modern democracy that stood apart from the Houses of Parliament in London. Based on anthropological fieldwork, this informative book analyzes how power in Wales is legitimated and justified. William Schumann s intriguing argument makes the case that contradictory political practices exist which affirm elected officials as public representatives while also reproducing the subordinate status of Wales within the institutional hierarchies of the United Kingdom and European Union.

• anthropology
• democracy
• government
• parliament
• sovereignty
• transformation
• British Politics

"Schumann has written a timely and important anthropological assessment of power in government and the roles which politicians, civil servants and other political leaders play in social and cultural change in a devolving United Kingdom. This is work at the cutting edge of political anthropology today." - Thomas M. Wilson, Professor of Anthropology, Binghamton University, SUNY

William R. Schumann is assistant professor of Anthropology at University of Pittsburgh - Bradford.

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