ABSTRACT

Migdal conceives of the state as a differentiated and complex organisation ‘imbedded’ in society. He argues that different parts of the state and society engage, and disengage, each other in a mutually transforming manner in multiple social arenas of domination, opposition, accommodation, and cooptation. Different parts of the state tend to pull in different directions; ‘one component of the state might align itself to an affiliated or linked social group against another component of the state’.3 In short, state and society interpenetrate one another, as

well as contest who makes the binding rules and norms of society. This study uses Migdal’s concept of state and society in its analysis of political interactions and change.