In this fully updated edition of Power and Its Disguises, John Gledhill explores both the complexities of local situations and the power relations that shape the global order. He shows how historically informed anthropological perspectives can contribute to debates about democratisation by incorporating a 'view from below' and revealing forces that shape power relations behind the formal facade of state institutions. Examples are drawn from Brazil, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Sri Lanka, amongst others.

While governments and the media present the often violent, repressive actions of governments as something wholly distinct from and certainly better than the actions of criminals, to those who suffer the consequences of the contemporary public security state, the difference isn t always so clear.
InThe New War on the Poor, John Gledhill presents that perspective, linking the experiences of labor migrants crossing Latin America s international borders; indigenous Mexicans defending their territories against capitalist mega-projects, drug wars, and paramilitary violence;...

While governments and the media present the often violent, repressive actions of governments as something wholly distinct from and certainly better than the actions of criminals, to those who suffer the consequences of the contemporary public security state, the difference isn t always so clear.
InThe New War on the Poor, John Gledhill presents that perspective, linking the experiences of labor migrants crossing Latin America s international borders; indigenous Mexicans defending their territories against capitalist mega-projects, drug wars, and paramilitary violence;...