Professional Documents
Culture Documents
State and Society
State and Society
If the state is considered as a centralised, The introduction of the state was not
bureaucratic structure of government, then simply a matter of running up a flag.
it is a fairly recent introduction in Papua Colonial rule took several decades to
New Guinea. Traditional Papua New establish itself in Papua New Guinea
Guinea political systems were small and (Wolfers 1975). At its edges, state officials
stateless (Langness 1972; Chowning 1977). (kiaps) often ruled in personal and violent,
Order within them was maintained by a rather than bureaucratic, ways. The
mixture of self-help, reciprocity, gossip, Highlands were only incorporated in the
shaming and supernatural sanctions 1930s and 1940s.
(Taylor 1982). Responsibility for
By the end of the 1940s the public
maintaining order was much more widely
service still only numbered about 1,000
dispersed among various institutions and
people (Dwivedi 1986). By independence it
the adult population than it was in more
had grown to about 50,000 (Turner 1990). It
specialised ‘stateful’ societies (Southall
grew a little in the late 1970s, then
1968). Unlike some parts of Polynesia, there
contracted in the early 1980s. It now
was no process of indigenous state
consists of about 150 different agencies.
formation to be interrupted by colonial rule
The largest of these are the 24 national and
(Spriggs 1988). The colonial powers—
19 provincial departments (Simpson and
Germany and Australia—defeated or
McKillop 1994), but the telephone directory
enlisted local leaders but did not inherit an
lists a variety of other agencies, including a
existing centralised, bureaucratic structure
Narcotics Bureau, a Rubber Board and a
of government.
Source: Larmour, P., 1992. ‘States and societies in the South Pacific’, Pacific Studies, 15(1):99–121.
Treating the list as a scorecard, Papua New Source: Migdal, J., 1988. Strong Societies and Weak
Guinea does well on participation States, Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
The four possible combinations of state which saw state officials as compradors
and society, with Migdal’s examples, are and the state itself as a ‘transmission belt’
shown in Table 2. for foreign exploitation, echoed and
justified the populist economic nationalism
In which cell should Papua New
of the time. In the 1980s, theories proposed
Guinea fall? If its state is weak, then the
by neo-classical economists typically
choice is between II and IV, and the issue is
argued from first principles for a reduced
the degree of social control exercised by
role for the state, but they also reflected,
organisations such as clans, tribes, and
and gained plausibility from, popular
linguistic and ethnic groups. Here we can
hostility to apparently wasteful and
only speculate, but it may be that these
ineffective bureaucracies. More recent
social controls are stronger at the very local
concern with what Weber (1983:11) called
level, in rural rather than urban areas, or in
the state’s ‘monopoly of the legitimate use
some parts of the country rather than
of violence’ reflects widespread popular
others. But Migdal’s argument is important
concern with crime and violence.
in drawing attention to the character of
Papua New Guinea society as well as the A desire for a unitary, well-managed
character of the state: it is the combination and de-politicised system of government is
of the two that determines the difference expressed in the reports of the
between a diffused system of power and rationalisation task force and the Bi-
anarchy. partisan Committee. Yet Papua New
The sharp antagonism that Migdal Guinea’s indigenous political traditions are
draws between state and society, however, clearly stateless and Papua New Guinea is
may miss the role of the state in creating currently incompletely stateful. To the
and sustaining social organisations like extent that the state is weak, outcomes will
clans, tribes and ethnic groups. Customary depend on the character of Papua New
land tenure in Papua New Guinea, for Guinea society.
example, is sustained by legal prohibitions Though the state has been discussed in
on land alienation. Historians of the terms of organisation and strength, the
‘invention of tradition’ have noted how concept of the state has moral and
tribes and chiefs are often at least partly the evaluative overtones. It is hard to talk
constructions of colonial policy about the state in Papua New Guinea
(Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983), while without implying that there should be
writing on governance sees the state acting some impersonal authority standing above
through and with non-state actors in politics and acting in the public interest. Yet
achieving social order (Kooieman and van in writing about state traditions Dyson
Vliet 1993). (1980) argues that the idea of the state as an
absolute, impersonal authority acting in the
public interest is specific to Western Europe
The state in Papua New Guinea and does not travel well, even to the
United Kingdom and the United States, let
Theories about the role of the state in alone Papua New Guinea. Dyson suggests
Papua New Guinea are not simply that liberal Anglo-Saxon societies with
academic. They are used by reformers to political traditions that are suspicious of
urge changes in structure and staffing, and government interference are, to that extent,
reflect or amplify popular opinion which in stateless. The idea of the state thus partly
turn affects the way people respond to state constitutes a state: if state officials and their
initiatives. Thus in the 1970s, the clients do not believe in it, the state
arguments of the dependency theory, becomes simply a cluster of organisations.
Dwivedi, O.P., 1986. ‘Growth of the public Langness, L., 1972. ‘Political organisation’,
service in Papua New Guinea’, in O.P. in P. Ryan (ed.), Encyclopedia of Papua
Dwivedi and N. Paulias (eds), The Public and New Guinea, vol. 2, Melbourne
Service of Papua New Guinea, University Press, Clayton:922–35.
Administrative College, Boroko:72–89.
Larmour, P., 1992. ‘States and societies in
Dyson, K., 1980. The State Tradition in the South Pacific’, Pacific Studies,
Western Europe, Oxford University Press, 15(1):99–121.
New York.
Migdal, J., 1988. Strong Societies and Weak
Economic Insights, 1994. Papua New Guinea: States: state–society relations and state
the role of government in economic capabilities in the Third World, Princeton
development, International Development University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Issues Paper 33, Australian Agency for
International Development, Canberra. Nettl, J., 1968. ‘The state as a conceptual
variable’, World Politics, 20:559–92.
Fingleton, J., 1981. ‘Policy making on
lands’, in J. Ballard (ed.), Policy Making Papua New Guinea, Constitutional
in a New State: Papua New Guinea 1972– Planning Committee, 1974. Final Report,
77, University of Queensland Press, St Constitutional Planning Committee,
Lucia:212–37. Port Moresby.
Southall, A., 1968. ‘Stateless society’, in D. Turner, M., 1990. Papua New Guinea: the
Sills (ed.), International Encyclopedia of challenge of independence, Penguin Books,
the Social Sciences, Collier Macmillan Ringwood, Victoria.
and Free Press, New York:157–67.
United Nations Joint Inter-agency Mission
Spriggs, M., 1988. ‘The Hawaiian to Papua New Guinea on Sustainable
transformation of ancestral Polynesian Development, 1994. Yumi Wakain,
society: conceptualising chiefly states’, United Nations Development
in J. Gledhill and B. Bender (eds), State Programme, Port Moresby.
and Society: the emergence and
development of social hierarchy and political Weber, M., 1983. ‘Politics as vocation’, in D.
centralisation, Unwin Hyman, Held et al. (eds), States and Societies,
London:57–73. Martin Robertson, Oxford:111–2.
Standish, B., 1994. ‘Papua New Guinea: the Wolfers, E., 1975. Race Relations and Colonial
search for security in a weak state’ in A. Rule in Papua New Guinea, Australia and
Thompson (ed.), Papua New Guinea: New Zealand Book Company,
issues for Australian security planners, Brookvale.