Rural political landscapes vary widely, even across closely neighboring regions in West Africa. Some states have sought to build a local presence that intrudes in the most intimate workings of village life, and even to “rewire the circuits of local authority” (Dunn 1975:195). Others remain aloof. To repeat Goran Hyden's (1983) evocative phrase, they remain suspended balloon-like in mid-air. In some places, the state's administrative outposts are captured by local big men and chiefs, while elsewhere state officials posted in the localities are constrained only by the directives of their superiors in capital cities like Abidjan, Accra, or Dakar. There are variations in the intrusiveness of the state at the local level, in rulers' autonomy vis-à-vis local interests, and in the capacity of rural actors to harness state prerogatives and resources to serve their own purposes.