Open AccessBorders and the Limits of Authority
Author(s) -
Robert M. Hayden
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the anthropology of east europe review/the anthropology of east europe review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2153-2931
pISSN - 1054-4720
DOI - 10.14434/aeer.v37i1.33575
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , politics , state (computer science) , action (physics) , law and economics , political science , political authority , law , sociology , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
In this article I introduce a variety of social, political and economic collectivities to analyze ways in which their interactions are influenced by borders as the territorial delimitations of legal authority, or jurisdictions. The limits of authority within such collectivities are seen in the overlapping grants of authority that impact them. To the extent that borders delineate spheres of legitimate action by governments, they can be defensive of the rights of people within them as well as protective of the rights of governments to impinge on those same rights, or both simultaneously. Borders can thus be constraining of those who cannot easily pass across them, yet simultaneously unconstraining of international actors who may be predatory on those who expect their state to protect them. If we are to understand borders, boundaries and cognate phenomena, we need always to take both sets of relations into account.