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big men and middlemen: the politics of law in Longana
Author(s) -
RODMAN WILLIAM L.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1977.4.3.02a00080
Subject(s) - politics , position (finance) , government (linguistics) , political science , law , sociology , political economy , public administration , business , finance , philosophy , linguistics
Studies of political middlemen suggest that appointed middlemen tend to be less effective than middlemen who achieve an interstitial position by acting as entrepreneurs. This paper discusses the introduction of native middlemen charged with responsibility for dispute processing in a northern New Hebridean society. The case of assessors in Longana indicates that government appointees may succeed in performing their assigned duties when established local leaders perceive a middleman role as a means of gaining access to scarce political resources.