6 - Congruence and Incongruence in Action

Summary

This chapter deploys model-testing case studies to explore the theoretical mechanisms laid out in Chapter 1. I follow a "typical" or on-lier case selection strategy from the statistical analysis by selecting cases that are similar in as many respects as possible apart from their exposure to a precolonial polity. By pairing oral histories, in-depth interviews, and network analysis of local elite social ties, I trace how the presence of a shared social identity and dense networks shape redistributive preferences in a "typical" case of institutional congruence, while their absence generates more biased forms of redistribution elsewhere. A third case utilizes the example of a precolonial kingdom that collapsed prior to French colonization leading to the out-migration of the kingdom's population. This reinforces the necessity of the theory's mechanism of persistence – durable rural social hierarchies – to carry precolonial legacies into the calculus of local elites today.