Trust and Rule (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

People rely on networks of strong ties to other people for a wide range of risky long-term activities such as marrying, raising children, sustaining distinctive religions, and carrying on long-distance trade. What happens when those networks confront political regimes that could regulate them, destroy them, or seize their assets? Trust and Rule uses a wide range of historical and contemporary evidence to map and explain different sorts of encounters between networks and political authorities, including their implications for democracy.