Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-24T20:42:42.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Clan Governance and State Stability: The Relationship between Female Subordination and Political Order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2015

VALERIE M. HUDSON ,
DONNA LEE BOWEN  and
PERPETUA LYNNE NIELSEN
VALERIE M. HUDSON*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
DONNA LEE BOWEN*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
PERPETUA LYNNE NIELSEN*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
*
Valerie M. Hudson is professor of international affairs in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University (vhudson@tamu.edu).
Donna Lee Bowen is professor of political science and Middle East Studies coordinator at Brigham Young University.
Perpetua Lynne Nielsen is associate teaching professor of statistics at Brigham Young University.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We propose that the relative influence of clans is an important explanatory factor producing significant variation in state stability and security across societies. We explore the micro-level processes that link clan predominance with dysfunctional syndromes of state behavior. Clans typically privilege agnatic descent from the patriline and are characterized by extreme subordination of women effected through marriage practices. Particular types of marriage practices give rise to particular types of political orders and may be fiercely guarded for just this reason. We construct and validate a Clan Governance Index to investigate which variables related to women's subordination to the patriline in marriage are useful to include in such an index. We then show that clan governance is a useful predictor of indicators of state stability and security, and we probe the value added by its inclusion with other conventional explanatory variables often linked to state stability and security.

“I against my brothers; my brothers and I against my cousins; my cousins, my brothers, and I against the world” (Bedouin saying)

“At the heart of tribes, to varying levels, is a severe patriarchy” (Jacobson 2013, 58).

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 109 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 535 - 555
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James. 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Akbar. 2013. The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Devleeschauwer, Arnaud, Easterly, William, Kurlat, Sergio, and Wacziarg, Romain. 2003. Fractionalization. NBER Working Papers 9411. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Alexander, Richard. 1979. Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Ali, Obaid. 2013, August 4. “‘You Must Have a Gun to Stay Alive’: Ghor, a Province with Three Governments.” Afghanistan Analysts Network. http://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/you-must-have-a-gun-to-stay-alive-ghor-a-province-with-three-governments (Accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
Anderlini, Jamil. 2013. “China: Blueprint for Reform Targets Corruption.” Financial Times, November 26. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d4bd3de0-4fb6-11e3-b06e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lnTmx4fF (Accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
Anderson, Lisa. 1990. “Tribe and State: Libyan Anomalies.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 288–302.Google Scholar
Asfura-Heim, Patricio. 2011. “Tribal Customary Law and Legal Pluralism in al-Anbar, Iraq.” In Customary Justice and the Rule of Law in War-torn Societies, ed. Isser, Deborah H.. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 239–83.Google Scholar
Barfield, Thomas. 1990. “Tribe and State Relations: The Inner Asian Perspective.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 153–84.Google Scholar
Barfield, Thomas. 2010. Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Beck, Lois. 1990. “Tribes and the State in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Iran.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 185–225.Google Scholar
Bendix, Reinhard. 1961. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Betzig, Laura. 1986. Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bill, James, and Springborg, Robert. 2000. Politics in the Middle East. 5th ed. New York: Pearson.Google Scholar
Brainard, Lael, and Chollet, Derel, eds. 2007. Too Poor for Peace? Global Poverty, Conflict, and Security in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry. 2007. “What Is National Security in the Age of Globalisation?” Utenriksdepartementet. http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/ud/kampanjer/refleks/innspill/sikkerhet/buzan.html?id=493187 (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
Caton, Steven C. 1990. “Anthropological Theories of Tribe and State Formation in the Middle East: Ideology and the Semiotics of Power.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 74–108.Google Scholar
Caton, Steven C. 2010. “Yemen: Not on the Verge of Collapse.” Foreign Policy, August 11. http://mideastafrica.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/11/yemen_not_on_the_verge_of_collapse (Accessed November 27, 2013).Google Scholar
Charrad, Mounira M. 2001. States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Coburn, Noah. 2011. Bazaar Politics: Power & Pottery in an Afghan Market Town. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2002. “Clans, Pacts, and Politics in Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 13 (3): 137–52.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2003. “The Political Role of Clans in Central Asia.” Comparative Politics 35 (2): 171–90.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2004. “The Logic of Clan Politics: Evidence from the Central Asian Trajectories.” World Politics 56 (2): 224–61.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2006. Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, Miriam. 2014. Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, Gerring, John, Altman, David, Bernhard, Michael, Fish, Steven, Hicken, Allen, et al. 2011. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: A New Approach.” Perspectives on Politics 9 (2): 247–67. doi: 10.1017/S1537592711000880 (Accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
Crone, Patricia. 1986. “The Tribe and the State.” In States in History, ed. Hall, John A.. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 48–77.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2008. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies throughout the World. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Dresch, Paul. 1990. “Imams and Tribes: The Writing and Acting of History in Upper Yemen.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 252–87.Google Scholar
Edgar, Adrienne. 2004. Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Edgar, Adrienne 2006. “Bolshevism, Patriarchy, and the Nation: The Soviet ‘Emancipation’ of Muslim Women in Pan-Islamic Perspective.” Slavic Review 65 (2): 252–72.Google Scholar
Edgar, Adrienne. 2007. “Marriage, Modernity, and the ‘Friendship of Nations’: Interethnic Intimacy in Post-war Central Asia in Comparative Perspective.” Central Asian Survey 26 (4): 581–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eickelman, Dale. 2002. The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Fish, M. Steven. 2002. “Islam and Authoritarianism.” World Politics 55 (1): 4–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 2011. Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Fund for Peace. 2014. The Indicators. http://ffp.statesindex.org/indicators (Accessed January 23, 2014).Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1999. “What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 2:115–44. doi: 10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.115 (Accessed January 23, 2014).Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1990. “Tribalism and the State in the Middle East.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 109–26.Google Scholar
Ghani, Ashraf, Carnahan, Michael, and Lockhart, Clare. 2006. Stability, State Building and Development Assistance: An Outside Perspective. The Princeton Project on National Security. https://www.princeton.edu/~ppns/papers/ghani.pdf (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1983. The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, David. 1970. “Clan, Lineage and the Feud in a Rifian Tribe [Aith Waryaghar, Morocco].” In Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, ed. Sweet, Louise. Garden City, NY: Natural History Press, 3–75.Google Scholar
Hartman, Mary. 2004. The Household and the Making of History: A Subversive View of the Western Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hervish, Alexandra, and Feldman-Jacobs, Charlotte. 2011. Who Speaks for Me? Ending Child Marriage. USAID Policy Brief. Population Reference Bureau. http://www.prb.org/pdf11/ending-child-marriage.pdf (Accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
Hudson, Valerie M., Bowen, Donna L., and Nielsen, Perpetua L.. 2011. “What Is the Relationship between Inequity in Family Law and Violence against Women? Approaching the Issue of Legal Enclaves.” Politics and Gender 7 (4): 453–92. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X11000328.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1993. “Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Affairs 72 (3). http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48950/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations (Accessed January 23, 2014).Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1998. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003. “The True Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Policy, March 1. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2003/03/01/the_true_clash_of_civilizations (Accessed March 3, 2014).Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund Survey. 2013, March 29. Security, Stability Measures Needed to Fix Fragile States. IMF.org. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2013/int032913a.htm (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
Jacobson, David. 2013. Of Virgins and Martyrs: Women and Sexuality in Global Conflict. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Khazanov, Anatoly. 1984. Nomads and the Outside World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Khoury, Philip S., and Kostiner, Joseph. 1990. “Tribes and the Complexities of State Formation in the Middle East.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1–24.Google Scholar
Kostiner, Joseph. 1990. “Transforming Dualities: Tribe and State Formation in Saudi Arabia.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 226–51.Google Scholar
Kraft, Herman. 2003. “The Philippines: The Weak State and the Global War on Terror.” Philippine Journal of Third World Studies 18 (1): 133–52.Google Scholar
Lancaster, William. 1997. The Rwala Bedouin Today. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Lapidus, Ira. 1990. “Tribes and State Formation in Islamic History.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 25–47.Google Scholar
Lindholm, Charles. 1982. Generosity and Jealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Maier, Charles S. 1990, June 12. “Peace and Security for the 1990s.” Unpublished paper for the MacArthur Fellowship Program. Washington, DC: Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Maine, Henry. 1986. Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and its Relation to Modern Ideas. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose, and Cowden, Jonathan. 2015. “Polygyny and Its Effects on Violence against Women.” In The Polygyny Question, eds. Bennion, Janet and Joffe, Lisa Fishbayn. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Flagg. 2007. The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen. Cambridge. MA: Harvard Middle East Monograph Series.Google Scholar
Mondays, Samuel. 2007. Corruption and State Instability in West Africa: An Examination of Policy Options. Occasional Paper, Accra, Ghana: Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/9BD8A1F729CEB5B8C125746C0049D740-kaiptc-dec2007.pdf (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
North, Douglass, Wallis, John Joseph, and Weingast, Barry R.. 2009. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Romm, Joseph J. 1993. Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects. Pew Project on America's Task in a Changed World (Pew Project Series). Washington, DC: Council on Foreign Relations.Google Scholar
Schatz, Edward. 2004. Modern Clan Politics. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Shryock, Andrew. 1997. Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smuts, Barbara. 1992. “Male Aggression against Women: An Evolutionary Perspective.” Human Nature 3:1–44. doi: 10.1007/BF02692265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smuts, Barbara. 1995. “The Evolutionary Origins of Patriarchy.” Human Nature 6 (1): 1–32.Google Scholar
Tapper, Richard. 1990. “Anthropologists, Historians, and Tribespeople on Tribe and State Formation in the Middle East.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 48–73.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. A. 2010. “What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?” European Journal of Development Research 22: 31–54. doi: 10.1057/ejdr.2009.32.Google Scholar
Tibi, Bassam. 1990. “The Simultaneity of the Unsimultaneous: Old Tribes and Imposed Nation-States in the Modern Middle East.” In Tribes and States Formation in the Middle East, eds. Khoury, Philip S. and Kostiner, Joseph. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 127–52.Google Scholar
Transparency International. N.d. “Corruption by Country.” http://transparency.org/country (Accessed January 23, 2014).Google Scholar
United Nations Children's Fund. 2005. Early Marriage: A Harmful Traditional Practice. UNICEF.org. http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Early_Marriage_12.lo.pdf (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program. 2005. Arab Human Development Report 2004: Towards Freedom in the Arab World. New York: United Nations Publications.Google Scholar
Vision of Humanity. Global Peace Index. http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/global-peace-index (Accessed January 23, 2014).Google Scholar
Weiner, Mark S. 2013. The Rule of the Clan: What an Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals about the Future of Individual Freedom. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2014. Worldwide Governance Indicators. WorldBank.org. http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#reports (Accessed October 1, 2014).Google Scholar
Wright, Robert. 1995. The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Wrong, Michela. 2010. It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Hudson supplementary material

Tables S1-S3 and Figure S1

Download Hudson supplementary material(File)
File 47.5 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Hudson supplementary material

Tables S1-S3 and Figure S1

Download Hudson supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 143.3 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.