Local Governance in Timor-Leste - Secretaria de Estado da Arte e ...

"problem solving theories", designed to "make these relationships and institutionswork smoothly by dealing effectively with particular sources of trouble" (Cox, 1981:128-29). However, while this approach may be useful to explicate particulareconomic and political problems, this conventional dividing up of reality does notreflect the reality of power and authority as it is experienced from within a Timoresesuku. Fieldwork demonstrates that traditional institutions are often highly formalised,and many modern institutions are in essence parasitic on these pre-existing traditionalinstitutions. Equally, cultural norms are seen very differently—and have verydifferent effects—to unwritten but nonetheless formal traditional institutions. I arguethat in order to understand local authority and power relations, these realities as theyare experienced from within a Timorese village must be engaged with.With its emphasis on perspective, a critical approach to institutionalism ties closelywith Tully's (1995) theory of the politics of mutual recognition by allowing theontological space for other perspectives to define their political reality. I argue thatthese perspectives can then be matched to official accounts of institutionalism toprovide a more textured account of local governance. By not presuming thecategorisation of formal and informal institutions, more nuanced accounts of localgovernance become possible where the importance of local politics is recognised, andthe everyday politics of mutual recognition is incorporated.There is another important reason for taking a critical approach to institutionalism, asit brings us to a new understanding of hegemony, or institutionalisation. Gramsci(1971) introduced the concept of hegemony in order to explain the interrelationship ofinstitutions, values and power, which he explained as a process of ideologicaldomination by the ruling class over the subordinate classes. Gramsci argues that theruling class maintain their power through not only controlling material forces, but alsothrough controlling symbolic or ideological forces. They establish certain valueswithin society, values that entrench the power of the ruling class, through influencingculture, religion, education and the media. Through this control of the ideologicalsectors of society, the ruling class convinces the subordinate classes of the legitimacyof their rule, thus avoiding the need to resort to open force (Gramsci, 1971: 12). Thus,the power of the ruling class is effected as much through the consent and complianceof the subordinate classes as through the exercise of power by the ruling class.67