Deinstitutionalization of the State and Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neoinstitutionalist Analysis of Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-437
Author(s):  
Fernando Lopez-Castellano ◽  
Roser Manzanera-Ruiz ◽  
Carmen Lizárraga
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
The State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Africa Rising

In recent years, a euphoric shift has taken place, typified by the narrative of “Africa rising,” which attempts to promote the idea of an economically emerging continent. In the Afro-optimist discourse, the idea is implicit that the neoliberal narrative has triumphed. However, critical voices argue that the discourse ignores the political environment under which African growth has been produced. This article critically reflects on the explanations of the neoinstitutionalist approach to development, the historical process of state formation and colonization in Africa. Following the proposal of postcolonial theory, sovereignty, tax, and violence are analyzed. Finally, the contradictory policies of the neoliberal experiment are demonstrated, which are leading to the deinstitutionalization of the State and to violence.JEL Classification: F54, F63, E02, N17

scholarly journals Secession Tendencies of the Modern Process of State Formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Olga A. Korotkova ◽  
◽  
Svetlana A. Osipova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Modern Process ◽  
New States

An analysis of some of the events taking place in the modern socio-political environment shows that the processes of state formation, the preconditions for which were laid down in the 20th century, are acquiring new impulses and continuation in the modern world. At the same time, the political technologies used in the construction of new states are diverse, but the most common form of the state formation process in the modern world is secession.

Guinea's Political Prisoners: Colonial Models, Postcolonial Innovation

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 890-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairi S. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
Communications Theory ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Sub Saharan

AbstractMuch postcolonial theory assumes a continuity of both behavior and representation between colonial rule and what has succeeded it across sub-Saharan Africa. The maltreatment of political prisoners in Guinea in the wake of its brief invasion by Portuguese troops in November 1970 provides a challenging but ultimately fruitful empirical record against which to test this theory. I use an analytical approach informed by history, law, anthropology, and communications theory to explore continuities between the legal practices of French colonial and contemporary revolutionary regimes, on one hand, and Guinea's pursuit of supposed traitors, on the other. Though there is more discontinuity than direct inheritance in the administration of justice, the article argues that the representation of Guinea's colonial heritage was a central part of how President Sékou Touré legitimized his state and his own rule. I suggest that the colonial legacy operated more as a benchmark of what behavior might be acceptable in a postcolonial revolutionary state such as Guinea than as a linear precedent from French colonial rule to the Guinean revolution. The regime's representation of its colonial legacy also helps to explain the form, medium, and content of the political prisoners' broadcast confessions.

Coalitional Presidentialism in Cross-Regional Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Chaisty ◽  
Nic Cheeseman ◽  
Timothy J. Power
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Regional Perspective

This chapter introduces the three regions—sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Former Soviet Union—and the nine countries—Armenia, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kenya, Malawi, Russia, and Ukraine—that provide the empirical material for the book. It introduces the two criteria used for case selection: 1) democratic competitiveness; 2) de jure and de facto constitutional provisions that empower presidents to be coalitional formateurs. It also introduces a variable that measures the salience of cross-party cooperation: the Index of Coalitional Necessity. Finally, it sketches the political landscape that has shaped the dynamics of coalitional presidentialism within each region, and it draws attention to important contextual differences between the nine country cases.

Turkey’s Sub-imperialism in Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 048661342110039
Author(s):  
Gönenç Uysal
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Gulf Countries ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
The Face ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Emerging Powers

The growing economic and political roles of the so-called emerging powers in sub-Saharan Africa have attracted particular attention following the apparent decline of Western powers in the face of the global economic crisis of 2007–2008. The AKP’s “proactive” foreign policy has manifested Turkey’s burgeoning role in the region. This paper draws upon Marxism to explore the diffusion of Turkish capital and the enhancement of military relations in the region in harmony and in contradistinction with Western and Gulf countries. It discusses the AKP’s proactive foreign policy vis-à-vis sub-Saharan Africa as a particular sociohistorical form of sub-imperialism that is characterized by and reproduces economic and geopolitical rivalries and alliances among Turkey and Western and Gulf countries. JEL Classification: F5, P1, O1

scholarly journals The state of business sustainability reporting in sub-Saharan Africa: an agenda for policy and practice

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Tilt ◽  
Wei Qian ◽  
Sanjaya Kuruppu ◽  
Dinithi Dissanayake
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
The State ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Sub Saharan

Purpose Developing countries experience their own social, political and environmental issues, but surprisingly limited papers have examined sustainability reporting in these regions, notably in sub-Saharan Africa. To fill this gap and understand the state of sustainability reporting in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper aims to investigate the current state of reporting, identifies the major motivations and barriers for reporting and suggests an agenda of future issues that need to be considered by firms, policymakers and academics. Design/methodology/approach This paper includes analysis of reporting practices in 48 sub-Saharan African countries using the lens of New Institutional Economics. It comprises three phases of data collection and analysis: presentation of overall reporting data collected and provided by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). analysis of stand-alone sustainability reports using qualitative data analysis and interviews with key report producers. Findings The analysis identifies key issues that companies in selected sub-Saharan African countries are grappling within their contexts. There are significant barriers to reporting but institutional mechanisms, such as voluntary reporting frameworks, provide an important bridge between embedding informal norms and changes to regulatory requirements. These are important for the development of better governance and accountability mechanisms. Research limitations/implications Findings have important implications for policymakers and institutions such as GRI in terms of regulation, outreach and localised training. More broadly, global bodies such as GRI and IIRC in a developing country context may require more local knowledge and support. Limitations include limited data availability, particularly for interviews, which means that these results are preliminary and provide a basis for further work. Practical implications The findings of this paper contribute to the knowledge of sustainability reporting in this region, and provide some policy implications for firms, governments and regulators. Originality/value This paper is one of only a handful looking at the emerging phenomenon of sustainability reporting in sub-Saharan African countries.

Including chiefs, maintaining peace? Examining the effects of state–traditional governance interaction on civil peace in sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katariina Mustasilta
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Traditional Authorities ◽  
Traditional Governance

The continued influence of traditional governance in sub-Saharan Africa has sparked increasing attention among scholars exploring the role of non-state and quasi-state forms of governance in the modern state. However, little attention has been given to cross-country and over-time variation in the interaction between state and traditional governance structures, particularly in regard to its implications for intrastate peace. This study examines the conditions under which traditional governance contributes to state capacity to maintain peace. The article argues that the type of institutional interaction between the state and traditional authority structures influences a country’s overall governance dynamics and its capacity to maintain peace. By combining new data on state–traditional authorities’ interaction in sub-Saharan Africa from 1989 to 2012 with intrastate armed conflict data, I conduct a systematic comparative analysis of whether concordant state–traditional authorities’ interaction strengthens peace. The empirical results support the argument that integrating traditional authorities into the public administration lowers the risk of armed conflict in comparison to when they remain unrecognized by the state. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the added value of this type of interaction is conditional on the colonial history of a country.

Law Reform in a Developing Country: A New Code of Obligations for Senegal

1964 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-19
Author(s):  
E. Allan Farnsworth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Republic

The Republic of Senegal has embarked upon a project to reform its private law. This fact, of itself, might not seem worthy of the attention of the legal profession in the United States, since Senegal is a country of only about 3,250,000 inhabitants, less than the population of the state of Alabama, covering only 76,000 square miles, less than the area of the state of Kansas, and having a total of exports and imports to the dollar zone of less than twelve million dollars in 1962. With twenty per cent of its population in its six largest cities of more than 30,000 inhabitants, it is the most urban, most literate, and most Europeanized of the francophonic countries of sub-Saharan Africa, but this alone would evoke little interest abroad in its attempts at law reform.

scholarly journals Foreign Investment and State Conflicts in Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roudabeh Kishi ◽  
Giuseppe Maggio ◽  
Clionadh Raleigh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Internal Environment ◽  
State Behavior

AbstractRates of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa are increasing, yet little is known about how this will affect the political environment. One possibility, explored here, is that increasing levels of FDI within developing states will incentivize state conflict activity. Using an instrumental strategy, we show that in states with a low regard for civil liberties, or with unhealthy economies (i.e. states with a cash deficit), increased access to investment is associated with a higher number of conflict actions by the state. We argue that access to investment can push regimes into using violent strategies to secure their internal environment and to ensure their survival, specifically in their engaging in conflict against opposition and armed combatants. This underscores the need for extensive monitoring of state behavior following the receipt of investment, similar to the oversight of conditional aid.

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