5. Women in African politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 56-67
Author(s):  
Ian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
New States

Gender inequality in Africa varies depending on the histories, culture, colonial legacy, and levels of economic development of each community. Generally, inequality is very real and has a direct impact upon the possibilities of the active involvement of women in political processes in Africa. ‘Women in African politics’ outlines the pre-colonial situation, the effects of colonialism on gender roles, and post-colonial Africa. At independence, most new states granted women the franchise. However, the societal norms of respectability, motherhood, and domestic responsibility often resulted in strong opposition to women playing particularly prominent roles in politics. Despite this, in recent years, women have begun mobilizing politically.

Nationalism in African Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rich Dorman
Keyword(s):  
Political Conflict ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New States ◽  
Artificial Boundaries ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Diverse Groups

African nationalism’s origins are found in anti-colonial protest and the artificial boundaries of post-colonial states. But it has proven a resilient force in African politics, alongside the colonially engineered states, with few border changes in the post-independence period. Despite the artificiality of the new states and nations, only a few new states emerge, with most political conflict aimed at ensuring inclusion within the state’s original boundaries. The experience of decolonization has led nationalist politics to be coalitional in form rather than ideological, bringing together diverse groups. Nation building strategies are deployed after independence to promote unity and development while depoliticizing, homogenizing, and gendering the nationalist legacy. Memorialization and iconography are deployed in this cause, but unevenly. The decades after independence are marked by single party or no-party rule in which the nationalist generations hold on to power. After the end of the cold war, when multiparty elections resumed in many states, and with the aging nationalists increasingly unable to maintain their hold on power, identity-based politics was transformed into an often violent politics of belonging, identifying some ethnic and racial groups as more fully national than others. In states that experienced liberation wars, the generation that led the struggle proved particularly resistant to handing over power, basing their claims on their nationalist credentials and seeking to discredit others. Yet generational and technological change ensured that subaltern groups, through creative and social media, as well as political movements, continued to claim, contest, and transform national imaginaries.

Presidentiële instituties en presidentialistische praktijken in postkoloniale Centraalafrikaanse politiek

Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-326
Author(s):  
Sam De Smedt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Black African ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Many Instruments

Three decades after their political independence, Black-African republics still search for stability. One-party states and military regimes have failed, but while both systems seem to retreat, presidentialism, the third branch of Negro-African governmentality, is likely to become a permanent phenomenon within post-colonial Central-African politics. Constitutionally rooted in presidential institutions, the single executive disposes of many instruments to establish presidentialist practices. Presidentialism itself refers to such historical precedents as the rule of traditional kings, colonial governors and nationalist leaders. lts legitimacy leans on the need for comprehensible government, political  stability, economic development and effective direction. Different kinds of presidentialism exist, but their classification depends on numerous criteria which are aften incompatible, and many characteristics of presidentialism can be indicated, of which the most important are patriarchy, wealth, charisma, sacralisation and historicity. Although presidentialism appears as an important aspect of the contemporary African political systems, few research has been done to explain the emergence and persistence of this phenomenon.

The Role of the M.P. in Tanzania

1970 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond F. Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Authority Relationships ◽  
New States ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
The Military ◽  
National Legislatures

The study of politics in “developing” countries has tended to focus on the less formal organs of government, such as political parties, the military, the bureaucracy, and even the educational system. National legislatures have often been ignored or rated of little significance in the political processes of these states. This practice contrasts markedly with the attention paid to legislatures in Western states. The most obvious explanation for it is that legislatures in new states tend to have little influence. Important decisions and shifts in power are usually made or recorded elsewhere in the political system.The Bunge, or National Assembly, of Tanzania is no exception to this general phenomenon. Nevertheless, an examination of the role of M.P.'s in Tanzania can be illuminating. The Bunge contains most of the major political leaders and has, at least constitutionally, broad authority. As a consequence, if the Assembly is to be only a weak political body, then informal norms limiting the powers of the M.P.'s role must exist. Moreover, these norms should prescribe authority relationships between the legislature and other policy shaping bodies in the political system, particularly the Party. Thus, an analysis of the roles of these men can provide important insights not only into the functions of the Bunge, but also into the elite political culture of Tanzania and the pattern of politics which this culture supports.

Persistence in changes: on the true causes of the irresistible attraction of the constitutions of exotic countries: Book review: The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Constitutions / ed. by R.Albert, D.O’Brien, S.Wheatle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-156
Author(s):  
Andrey Medushevsky
Keyword(s):  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Legal Development ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Social Difficulties ◽  
Administrative Governance ◽  
The Impact

In the great international literature on comparative constitutional law, main theoretical observations and constructions normally been made on the ground of principle Western models interpretation. That is quite natural because the experience of established democracies in their historical and political implications formed the basis and resource of inspiration for many new nations looking forward to create the similar forms of constitutional government in spite of various cultural and social difficulties. But this approach substitute the problem by its ideal solution sometimes ignoring the whole bulk of emotions, hesitations, exaggerated hops, disappointments and interests, which are represented in regions and countries of so-called “periphery zone” of legal development acutely pressed to search their own strategy of constitutional modernization in quite different cultural and political context. This problem becomes the central point in the monumental work under review – “The Oxford handbook of Caribbean Constitutions”. The book providing a solid ground for the complex academic deliberation of one of such regions – a very specific group of countries, which formerly were part of the great European colonial empires, recently proclaimed their independence and stay in a permanent process of constitutional self-determination trying to find their proper way in legal globalization. Carefully summarizing the materials and ideas of this collective work, the author of this review article discusses some general conceptual items of this type of constitutionalism: the role of common culture and history in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial legal development; the impact of “colonial legacy” in formation of post-independence constitutionalism of respective countries. He reconsider the place of indigenous forms and imported imperial constitutional design in the establishment of the new constitutionalism and administrative governance; the specific trend to hybridization of different legal traditions, norms and institutes in process of their evolution and selection through constitutional amendments, constitutional jurisprudence and projects of reforms. In concluding part of this article the author summing up his vision of continuity and ruptures in legal development balance of Caribbean region in comparison with Post-Soviet region’s current constitutional transformation.

GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN NIGERIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-154
Author(s):  
O.W. Adeleke ◽  
◽  
А.Т. Abzhaliyeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
State System ◽  
The West ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Market Economies ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New States ◽  
Domestic Instability

Globalization creates social inequality and instability, it poses threat to sovereignty and territorial integrity not just in the post-colonial countries of Asia and Afrika, but also in the current Westphalia state system. Globalization often tacitly embolden demands for new states. Meanwhile, neo-liberalism that works in the well-established market economies in the West has failed to meet the target in the emerging markets of the developing economies. Although globalization comes with both enriching and impoverishing impacts, yet the impacts are known to be disruptive and contribute to domestic instability.

Co-constituting Fijian identity: the role of constitutions in Fijian national identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Mudaliar
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Island States ◽  
National Symbols ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter focuses on the role that constitutions play in national identity, particularly in states that are recently independent and constrained by a colonial legacy. It uses Fiji as a case study, exploring how British colonialism influenced conceptions of Fijian national identity in the constitutional texts of 1970, 1990 and 1997. The chapter explores the indigenous ethno-nationalist ideals that underpinned these constitutions, which led to the privileging of indigenous Fijian identity within the wider national identity. However, in 2013, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama introduced a new constitution which shifted away from previous ethno-nationalist underpinnings towards a more inclusive national identity through the promotion of a civic nationalist agenda. In doing so, Bainimarama’s goal of reducing ethnic conflict has seen a constitutional re-imagining of Fijian identity, which includes the introduction of new national symbols, and a new electoral system, alongside equal citizenry clauses within the Constitution. This study offers a unique insight into power and identity within post-colonial island states.

Reading RP Anand in the Post-Colony

2019 ◽  
pp. 297-317
Author(s):  
Prabhakar Singh
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
New States ◽  
Functional Inclusion

Professor RP Anand analysed the birth of new states and their theoretical and functional inclusion in the post-UN world. The 1947 Indian independence afforded Indian lawyers a choice between Nehruvian internationalism and Judge Pal’s Tokyo dissent. Essentially, Anand preferred state interest over cultural differences as the currency of international law while celebrating the UN Charter, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Convention of the Law of Sea as the achievements of the mankind. Anand saw the rejection of international law as synonymous with power politics. While optimistic, his universalism engendered a Western anti-thesis that an Asian approach to international law, if any, was otiose. Subsequently, post-colonial scholars responded with a synthesis that brought colonialism from periphery to the centre of international legal theory.

6. The role of identity in African politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Ian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Family ◽  
Colonization Period

‘The role of identity in African politics’ explains that identity politics are symptoms of Africa’s underdevelopment, not the cause, and the prominence of such political mobilization reflects much deeper structural problems facing many post-colonial states. Before the colonial era, African societies were based on notions of identity, such as the family, ancestral lineage, the clan, or the community. Colonial rule forced together different communities (some of which were traditionally hostile to each other) and was mainly responsible for producing the situation found today where very few nation states exist. Colonial authorities concretized differences among and between the subjugated and the de-colonization period further contributed to the politicization of identity.

4. The primacy of patronage politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Ian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Coercive Control ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Patronage Politics

A great number of post-colonial African countries, bounded by formal frontiers and with an international presence at various international institutions such as the United Nations, function quite differently from conventional understandings of what a formal state is and should do. ‘The primacy of patronage politics’ explains that to understand African politics, the concept of neo-patrimonialism must be considered. Neo-patrimonialism is where patronage, clientelism, and rent-seeking exist, but where the structures of a modern state are also in place. In general, post-colonial African leaders have relied on coercive control and patronage through capturing power over the state, rather than through constructing a functioning impartial administration.

The culture of conveniences

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-158
Author(s):  
Christopher Dye
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Safety ◽  
Energy Education ◽  
Human Waste ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Health And Well Being

Despite thousands of years of toilet culture and technology, and despite the obvious benefits of sanitation for health and well-being, the great majority of people alive today do not have access to a safe system for removing human waste. The installation of safe sanitary systems depends on cooperation among many kinds of providers and users. Their collective goal is to align the benefits for health with personal and social preferences for toilet use and hygiene, while exploiting other benefits from agriculture, energy, education, environmental protection, housing, and flood protection. For individuals, families, and communities, toilets are not merely, or even mainly, to protect health. Rather, their acceptability hinges on convenience, privacy, personal safety, and dignity, where preferences are rooted in societal norms. Providing safe sanitation for all is not merely a health intervention: it is one of the mutually reinforcing processes of cultural, social, and economic development.

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