Download or read book Political Topographies of the African State written by Catherine Boone and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-27 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study brings Africa into the mainstream of studies of state-formation in agrarian societies. Territorial integration is the challenge: institutional linkages and political deals that bind center and periphery are the solutions. In African countries, rulers at the center are forced to bargain with regional elites to establish stable mechanisms of rule and taxation. Variation in regional forms of social organization make for differences in the interests and political strength of regional leaders who seek to maintain or enhance their power vis-a-vis their followers and subjects, and also vis-a-vis the center.
Download or read book The State of Africa written by Martin Meredith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 1082 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is forever on our TV screens, but the bad-news stories (famine, genocide, corruption) massively outweigh the good (South Africa). Ever since the process of decolonialisation began in the mid-1950s, and arguably before, the continent has appeared to be stuck in a process of irreversible decline. Constant war, improper use of natural resources and misappropriation of revenues and aid monies contribute to an impression of a continent beyond hope. How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done? Weaving together the key stories and characters of the last fifty years into a stunningly compelling and coherent narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European ideas of how to organise 10,000 different ethnic groups has led to what Tony Blair described as the 'scar on the conscience of the world'. Authoritative, provocative and consistently fascinating, this is a major book on one of the most important issues facing the West today.
Download or read book The State in Africa written by Tatah Mentan and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2010 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Framing the problem of the state in Africa -- Historical and theoretical context -- The state in Africa in an era of capitalist globalization : a theoretical exploration -- Slavery and capitalist globalization -- Colonial globalization or the extension of European Westphalian state to Africa -- Decolonizing imperial state in Africa, 1945-60 : plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose -- African developmentalist/nationalist state? -- From welfare/developmentalist to neo-liberal nation state in Africa -- Neo-liberal assault on the state in Africa : roots of state weakness, failure and collapse -- The state in Africa and civil society in historical perspective -- Future of the state in Africa in an era of neoliberal globalization -- An African state is possible : looking back in order to look ahead.
Download or read book African States and Rulers written by John Stewart and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a bigger (over 11,000 entries), updated (through late fall 1998) edition of the 1989 original covering the enormous kaleidoscope of changing political boundaries, names, and rulers of Africa. This exhaustive reference allows the user quickly to determine what happened in or to each country and when--changes of names, political systems, rulers, and so on. The term state is loosely defined to embrace, throughout the history of Africa, any area of land with recognized borders and evidence of a continuing governmental structure, almost always with a capital city. Entries give official name of country, dates during which it went by that name, location, capital, alternate names including cross-references to previous and later incarnations, and a list of rulers with dates of power when known.
Download or read book The African State written by Abdi Ismail Samatar and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The African state is more essential than ever for the sustainability of the long march towards political, economic, and cultural development. This volume captures the diversity of African states and leadership by examining eight states from northern, western, eastern, and southern Africa. Contributing African scholars transcend current thinking on the nature of the state and its role in transforming the fortunes of the continent. They establish a conceptual framework that allows for a complex but concrete and integrated analysis of the African state. Leader, regime, administration, and commonwealth provide the four key factors for identification of state types in Africa. Different combinations of these factors produce various types of states ranging from Botswana's relatively integral political system to the "cadaverous" Somali state. States examined in this collection include: Botswana Ethiopia Ghana Libya Nigeria South Africa Sudan All of the book's contributors have done substantial scholarly works on their respective countries. Their essays provide practical means of assessing reform programs intended to enhance state effectiveness. This book will be of great value not only to scholars, but also to policy makers and others concerned with the construction of a positive future for the African continent.
Download or read book The Modern African State written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2001 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the modern African State as a fragile institution because of its structural flaws. It focuses on a number of African countries whose combined analyses provide a focal point for looking at the whole continent as one giant place with crumbling state institutions whose fragility threatens the very existence of several African countries. Even in rich African countries, peace and stability is threatened and rampant corruption and dictatorship. Nothing better demonstrates the weakness and cruelty of the modern African State than its willingness to instigate tribal violence in a number of African countries and its inability to contain such hostilities in many others. In an attempt to put such weakness in proper perspective, the author focuses on analyses of case studies, as the context for a better understanding of the modern African State, as the most dominant institution on the African continent.
Download or read book The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective written by Crawford Young and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive and original study, a distinguished specialist and scholar of African affairs argues that the current crisis in African development can be traced directly to European colonial rule, which left the continent with a "singularly difficult legacy" that is unique in modern history. Crawford Young proposes a new conception of the state, weighing the different characteristics of earlier European empires (including those of Holland, Portugal, England, and Venice) and distilling their common qualities. He then presents a concise and wide-ranging history of colonization in Africa, from the era of construction through consolidation and decolonization. Young argues that several qualities combined to make the European colonial experience in Africa distinctive. The high number of nations competing for power around the continent and the necessity to achieve effective occupation swiftly yet make the colonies self-financing drove colonial powers toward policies of "ruthless extractive action." The persistent, virulent racism that established a distance between rulers and subjects was especially central to African colonial history. Young concludes by turning his sights to other regions of the once-colonized world, comparing the fates of former African colonies to their counterparts elsewhere. In tracing both the overarching traits and variations in African colonial states, he makes a strong case that colonialism has played a critical role in shaping the fate of this troubled continent.
Download or read book States and Power in Africa written by Jeffrey Herbst and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2000-03-26 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In his groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective, examining the problem of state consolidation from the precolonial period, through the short but intense interlude of European colonialism, to the modern era of independent states. Herbst's bold contention--that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long before European penetration of the continent--is sure to provoke controversy, for it runs counter to the prevailing assumption that colonialism changed everything. In identifying how the African state-building process differs from the European experience, Herbst addresses the fundamental problem confronting African leaders: how to extend authority over sparsely settled lands. Indeed, efforts to exert control over vast, inhospitable territories of low population density and varied environmental and geographical zones have resulted in devastating wars, millions of refugees, and dysfunctional governments perpetrating destructive policies. Detailing the precise political calculations of distinct African leaders, Herbst isolates the basic dynamics of African state development. In analyzing how these leaders have attempted to consolidate power, he is able to evaluate a variety of policy alternatives for dealing with the fundamental political challenges facing African states today.
Download or read book Warlord Politics and African States written by William Reno and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reno (political science, Florida International U.) examines alternative, usually clandestine, economic systems, arguing that such phenomena as tax evasion, illicit production, smuggling, and protection rackets have become widespread and integral to building political authority in parts of Africa. He also clarifies the limitations of the liberalizing reforms of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by detailing how weak- state and warlord political economies restrict and manipulate bank and IMF prescriptions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Emerging Africa written by Steven C. Radelet and published by CGD Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging Africa describes the too-often-overlooked positive changes that have taken place in much of Africa since the mid-1990s. In 17 countries, five fundamental and sustained breakthroughs are making old assumptions increasingly untenable: - The rise of democracy brought on by the end of the Cold War and apartheid - Stronger economic management - The end of the debt crisis and a more constructive relationship with the international community - The introduction of new technologies, especially mobile phones and the Internet - The emergence of a new generation of leaders. With these significant changes, the countries of emerging Africa seem poised to lead the continent out of the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past. The countries discussed in the book are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Download or read book The African State in Transition written by Zaki Ergas and published by Springer. This book was released on 1987-10-20 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first twenty-five years of African independence the behaviour of the African state elites has not been, with a few notable exceptions, conducive to self-sustained development. What are the reasons for this sorry state of affairs? What can be done to reverse that unfortunate trend? These are the two overarching questions with which this book attempts to grapple.
Download or read book Africa in Florida written by Amanda Carlson and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays encourages a critical evaluation of the concept of "Florida" as a cultural and geographical entity and the influences and effects of the numerous African and Africa American-influenced cultures.
Download or read book African History A Very Short Introduction written by John Parker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-22 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.
Download or read book Citizen and Subject written by Mahmood Mamdani and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In analyzing the obstacles to democratization in post- independence Africa, Mahmood Mamdani offers a bold, insightful account of colonialism's legacy--a bifurcated power that mediated racial domination through tribally organized local authorities, reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in subjects. Many writers have understood colonial rule as either "direct" (French) or "indirect" (British), with a third variant--apartheid--as exceptional. This benign terminology, Mamdani shows, masks the fact that these were actually variants of a despotism. While direct rule denied rights to subjects on racial grounds, indirect rule incorporated them into a "customary" mode of rule, with state-appointed Native Authorities defining custom. By tapping authoritarian possibilities in culture, and by giving culture an authoritarian bent, indirect rule (decentralized despotism) set the pace for Africa; the French followed suit by changing from direct to indirect administration, while apartheid emerged relatively later. Apartheid, Mamdani shows, was actually the generic form of the colonial state in Africa. Through case studies of rural (Uganda) and urban (South Africa) resistance movements, we learn how these institutional features fragment resistance and how states tend to play off reform in one sector against repression in the other. The result is a groundbreaking reassessment of colonial rule in Africa and its enduring aftereffects. Reforming a power that institutionally enforces tension between town and country, and between ethnicities, is the key challenge for anyone interested in democratic reform in Africa.
Download or read book Africa After Independence written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by New Africa Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work focuses on the early years of independence and the problems African countries faced soon after the end of colonial rule. Many of those problems still exist today. They include poverty and underdevelopment; adoption of alien ideologies and economic and political systems; structural flaws of the modern African state and its institutions inherited at independence; nation-building, democratization, national integration, and ethnoregional rivalries among others. It is also a historical study of the continent since the partition of Africa by the imperial powers and of the struggle for independence. It also focuses on the continent's demographic composition, shedding some light on the complexity and diversity of the world's second largest continent. The history of Africa's indigenous peoples and their earliest contact with foreigners provides a background to this telescopic survey. The sixties was one of the most important decades in the history of Africa and this work provides a balanced perspective on those years when Africans celebrated the end of colonial rule on their continent. It is a compact study covering a vast expanse of territory from the advent of imperial rule to the attainment of sovereign status for African countries during the sixties and the problems they faced in those years. As a demographic portrait, it excels in depicting the continent as a tapestry that reflects the racial diversity and multiethnic composition of this vast land mass, the second largest after Asia. And as a historical and political analysis, it addresses some of the most important issues in the post-colonial era including the Cold War, with the Congo figuring prominently in the analysis as thefirst theatre of combat and super-power rivalry in the early sixties on the African continent. The dawn of freedom provided opportunities and challenges for the young African nations as they tried to modernize and consolidate their independence in a world dominated by major powers and contending ideologies. It was a rude awakening to the harsh realities of nationhood. One of these was the desire by the major powers to turn African countries into client states as the two ideological camps, East and West, competed for world domination. As Julius Nyerere warned, "We are not going to allow our friends to choose our enemies for us." One of the most contentious grounds for this hegemonic control was, of course, the Congo, right in the middle of the continent. It became the bleeding heart of Africa as the country was turned into a combat theatre mainly between the surrogate forces of the West and the Congolese nationalist forces supported by a number of African countries and by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The Congo imbroglio since the turbulent sixties mainly as a result of foreign intrigue and intervention is one of the most important subjects addressed in this book. And it raises serious questions that have profound implications even today for a continent mired in conflict; this time ignited by the Africans themselves in many - but not in all - cases. Yet, prospects for the world's poorest and most embattled continent are not bleak if Africans seek their own solutions to their own problems in this post-Cold War era of globalization dominated by the industrialized nations. The book includes many photos from the early sixties, the dawn of a new era when Africancountries won independence, which Oginga Odinga described as "Not Yet Uhuru."
Download or read book Restructuring the African State and Quest for Regional Integration written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by New Africa Press. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author looks at different approaches towards regional and continental unity, and the need to restructure the African state. He contends that reconfiguration of the African state is necessary after the institutions inherited at independence, especially centralisation of power, have failed to serve the people. He calls for decentralisation of power in order to enable the people - different groups - to set their own agenda for sustainable development. Power should be in the hands of the people at the grassroots level using local institutions to formulate development plans, control and allocate resources in their own areas. Reconfiguration of the African state will also help to accommodate different ethnic groups on equal basis and enable marginalised groups, especially smaller and weaker groups, to fully participate in the political process and get a fair share of the nation's resources without being dominated and exploited by others, especially dominant groups. Restructuring the state will also enable all groups to play an equal role in achieving unity, stability and development. The work is also an examination of the transition African countries have gone through since independence and the problems they have faced and continue to face in terms of nation building and trying to achieve and maintain peace and stability without which prosperity is impossible. It is a call for rebuilding Africa through a combination of innovative approaches.
Download or read book A New Paradigm of the African State written by M. Muiu and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-01-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a historical, multidisciplinary perspective on African political systems and institutions, ranging from Antiquity (Egypt, Kush and Axum) to the present with particular focus on their destruction through successive exogenous processes including the Atlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism or globalization.
