From Political Subjectivity to Political Intentionality: The Predominance of Society over the Individual
Volume 18, Issue 27 (2018): Lietuvos etnologija: socialinės antropologijos ir etnologijos studijos, pp. 155–172
Pub. online: 31 December 2018
Type: Article
Open Access
Published
31 December 2018
31 December 2018
Abstract
This contribution aims to show that specific societies are often incorrectly regarded as particularly individualistic, and may be held to be characterised by a specific ‘political subjectivity’, displaying informal coalitions, consisting of informal networks that infiltrate public institutions and undermine the efficiency of the state. For the social sciences, informality has a questionable reputation, because it is at the root of social phenomena such as nepotism, cronyism, patronage, corruption and mafias. Further, the article shows that the State has the monopoly on legality, but lacks legitimacy. This contribution is based on long-term fieldwork in southern and southeast Europe.