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Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) (Created page with "{{def|Legibility|/ˌlɛdʒɪˈbɪlɪti/|n|}} {{quote|I began to see legibility as a central problem in statecraft. The premodern.state was, in many crucial respects, partial...") |
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{{def|Legibility|/ˌlɛdʒɪˈbɪlɪti/|n|}} | {{def|Legibility|/ˌlɛdʒɪˈbɪlɪti/|n|}} | ||
{{quote|I began to see legibility as a central problem in statecraft. The premodern.state was, in many crucial respects, partially blind; it knew precious little about its subjects, their wealth, their land-holdings and yields, their location, their very identity. It lacked anything like a detailed | {{quote|I began to see legibility as a central problem in statecraft. The premodern.state was, in many crucial respects, partially blind; it knew precious little about its subjects, their wealth, their land-holdings and yields, their location, their very identity. It lacked anything like a detailed “map” of its terrain and its people. It lacked,for the most part, a measure, a metric, that would allow it to “translate” what it knew into a common standard necessary for a synoptic view. As a result, its interventions were often crude and self-defeating. | ||
:—{{author|James C. Scott}}, {{br|Seeing Like a State}}}} | :—{{author|James C. Scott}}, {{br|Seeing Like a State}}}} | ||