The Shapeshifting Crown Locating the State in Postcolonial New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK
Book contents
- The Shapeshifting Crown
- The Shapeshifting Crown
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Table of Statutes and Cases
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Nature and Development of the Crown
- 2 Genealogies of the Modern Crown
- 3 The Crown as Metonym for the State?
- 4 Indigenous Peoples and the Crown
- Part II The Crown as an Embodied Entity
- Part III The Crown and Constitutional Reform
- Index
- References
3 - The Crown as Metonym for the State?
The Human Face of Leviathan
from Part I - The Nature and Development of the Crown
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2019
By
Book contents
- The Shapeshifting Crown
- The Shapeshifting Crown
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Table of Statutes and Cases
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Nature and Development of the Crown
- 2 Genealogies of the Modern Crown
- 3 The Crown as Metonym for the State?
- 4 Indigenous Peoples and the Crown
- Part II The Crown as an Embodied Entity
- Part III The Crown and Constitutional Reform
- Index
- References
Summary
In New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom the Crown is often used as a metonym or proxy for the state and is commonly regarded as the ultimate source of legal authority and embodiment of state power. But what does ‘embodiment’ mean in practice, and are the concepts of Crown and state synonymous? This chapter draws together legal, political and anthropological theories of the state to offer new insights into the nature of the Crown, particularly into the way it sustains its authority and produces the illusion of its own coherence. I analyse the political and symbolic implications of personifying the state in the figure of a monarch in contrast to more abstract representations of the state, and the way the Westminster system of government produces particular kinds of state effect. I also question Foucault’s contention that, in order to understand the modern state and analyse political power, it is necessary to ‘chop off the king’s head’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Shapeshifting CrownLocating the State in Postcolonial New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK, pp. 53 - 74Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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