Local Self-Governance in Antiquity and in the Global South: Theoretical and Empirical Insights from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

The nucleus of society is situated at the local level: in the village, the neighborhood, the city district. This is where a community first develops collective rules that are intended to ensure its continued existence. The contributors look at such configurations in geographical areas and time periods that lie outside of the modern Western world with its particular development of society and statehood: in Antiquity and in the Global South of the present. Here states tend to be weak, with obvious challenges and opportunities for local communities. How does governance in this context work? Scholars from various disciplines (Classics, Theology, Political Science, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Human Geography, Sinology) analyze different kinds of local arrangements in case studies, and they do so with a comparative approach. The sixteen papers examine the scope and spatial contingency of forms of self-governance; its legitimization and the collective identity of the groups behind them; the relations to different levels of state governance as well as to other local groups. Overall, this volume makes an interdisciplinary contribution to a better understanding of fundamental elements of local governance and statehood.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; Local Self-Governance in Antiquity and in the Global South: An Introduction --; Law, Patronage, and Communication as Pillars of Urban Governance --; I Theory and Interdisciplinary Approaches --; The State and the Good Society: Elements of the Liberal Communitarianism’s Political Conception --; Claiming Legitimization: Non-State Violent Local Stakeholders and Power Legitimization of the Maccabees in Judea in the Second Century BCE and the Koglwéogo in Today’s Burkina Faso --; Water for the People: Provision and Maintenance of Water Infrastructure in the Context of Weak Statehood in Antiquity and the Modern Era --; II Antiquity --; Syria and Judea --; Ptolemaic Royal Decrees between Strong and Weak Statehood: Two Ordinances of Ptolemy II on Livestock and Slaves in the Southern Levant --; Honor the King, and His Friends: The Extent of Early Hasmonean Statehood --; Fundamentals of Self-Government in Ancient Jewish Writing 4 Maccabees --; Christian Monasticism as a Facilitator of Local Self-Governance: The Case of sixth-century Gaza --; Italy and North Africa --; Whose Monuments? Italian Urbanism and Roman Interventions (2nd–1st Century BCE) --; Undermining the Emperor in Late Roman Africa: Corruption, Maladministration, and the View from the Provinces --; Urban Communities and the “Weak” Empire in Roman North Africa (1st to 6th Century CE) --; III The Global South --; China --; Contested Spaces of Self-Governance? Local Participation in the Context of China’s PV Poverty Alleviation Strategy --; Brazil --; Experiences of Local Self-Regulation Legitimation in a South Brazilian Town: Credit Cooperative and Community Higher Education --; Mozambique and Burkina Faso --; A Cat-and-Mouse Game: Urban Street Vending in Maputo, Mozambique --; Migration in Maputo City and Ethnic Cohesion among Africans: To What Extent Do Ethnic Ties Contribute to Inclusive Growth? --; Local Self-Organisation under Socio-Spatial Pressure: Insights from Rural Karangasso- Vigué (Burkina Faso) and Peri-Urban Maputo (Mozambique) --; Authors --; Index