ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of successive forms of political rule in the northern Peruvian Andes in the middle decades of the twentieth century. It explores the process by which state crisis emerges out of seemingly ordinary, unremarkable political conditions. My findings suggest that the state was in fact in continual crisis, even during periods that appeared normal, but that elaborate processes of masking and dissimulation generally succeeded in concealing this fact. In those rare moments when crisis became visible it therefore seemed inexplicable, exceptional, a deviation from the normal state of affairs. On this basis, I argue that scholars have yet to understand the full extent or significance of the modern state’s commitment to producing the appearance of the ordinary—to the role of concealment and misrepresentation in creating a legitimating veneer of rule. I also suggest that viewing what appear to be normal conditions through a lens of crisis can raise new questions about the state and state formation.
