Local Knowledge of Elites as a Basis for Comparing Political Systems
Main Article Content
Abstract
Abstract: I organize conversations and press reports about socialist-era officials into four streams of discourse, each stream of discourse representing a particular lesson that I sought to learn in the field. I then examine what each lesson, or strand of discourse, implies about the reputation of East Germany’s deposed elite, the inner workings of East Germany, and the moral significance of East Germany. Next, I analyze the identity politics that is woven into local knowledge of East Germany’s deposed elite: The discrimination faced by former East German officials, the ambiguous moral position of the anthropologist who is interested in a stigmatized group, and the seemingly elevated moral status of the anthropologists’ conversation partners. I then draw on the criteria by which deposed elites are judged to create a framework for comparing regimes. My framework highlights two criteria of judgment: Has the elite violated local or international norms? Is the elite composed of locals or foreigners? These two criteria are a potential source of reputational hazard and delegitimation, and thus can inform analysis of political culture: the myths and rituals that elites draw upon to legitimate their rule.
Keywords: East Germany; Leipzig; elites; politicians; comparative politics; forms of government
Downloads
Article Details
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. While AEER adopts the above strategies in line with best practices common to the open access journal community, it urges authors to promote use of this journal (in lieu of subsequent duplicate publication of unaltered papers) and to acknowledge the unpaid investments made during the publication process by peer-reviewers, editors, copy editors, programmers, layout editors and others involved in supporting the work of the journal.