What Came First, The Nation or the State? Political Process in the Comoro Islands

Africa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 582-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Walker
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Conflict In Africa ◽  
Comoro Islands

AbstractThe widespread failure of the post-colonial state in Africa is often attributed to a lack of social and cultural unity, and hence of national identity, in the territories in question. In Europe the state has historically been conceptualized as coterminous with the nation, an apparently ‘natural’ cultural unit that allowed for subsequent political cohesion and the avoidance of ethnic conflict. In Africa the concept (and the reality) of the nation is often absent and this is sometimes considered to be a stumbling block on the path to political stability. However, the suggestion that a state whose population exhibits the requisite cultural homogeneity would construct and maintain a nation and, subsequently, successful and stable statehood is challenged by evidence from the Comoro Islands. Here, despite apparent socio-cultural unity, there has been little movement towards the development of a nation; indeed, there is evidence that an explicit denial of socio-cultural unity underpins the failure of the state.

scholarly journals Indonesia in the 1950s: Nation, modernity, and the post-colonial state

2011 ◽  
Vol 167 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk Schulte Nordholt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Cultural Terms ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
New Nation

This essay explores discussions in the 1950s about Indonesian national identity, which were primarily framed in cultural terms. The early years of this decade witnessed optimistic efforts to shape a new nation driven by modernity. Gradually these efforts were aborted by the encroachment of the state. In this respect questions are raised concerning the post-colonial nature of the Indonesian middle class which inhabited this state.

Theoretical foundations of the formation of the socio-political concept of “Nation-building” in Modern Russia

2020 ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Olga V. Tsvetkova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Face

The aim of the study is to develop the concept of “nation-building” as a socio-political project that is adequate to the national ethno-socio-cultural traditions, aimed at improving national security and strengthening the political stability of the entire Russian multinational society in the face of new chal- lenges. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the conceptual generalization of new problems, challenges and risks of constructing the concept of “nation-build- ing”, which require fundamental theoretical understanding within the framework of domestic ethnopolitical science. The article uses an interdisciplinary methodology in the development of the socio-political concept of “nation-building”. The use of socio-cultural analysis made it possible to adapt the concept of “nation-building” to Russian political traditions and values. Comparative political analysis allowed us to compare domestic and foreign approaches to the formation of nation-building. The sys- tematic method revealed the structural elements of the state policy of nation- building in Russia.The result of the research is the proposed socio-political concept, which depends on the role of the state and the challenges of modernity in the Russian ethno-political process and the formation of a civil nation.

Chiefs, elders, and traditional authority

2020 ◽  
pp. 296-309
Author(s):  
Michelle Osborn
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
Provincial Administration ◽  
Ordinary Citizens ◽  
The Way

For over a century, Kenya’s chiefs have served as central figures in the formation and implementation of state bureaucracy. Inextricably linked with the colonial and post-colonial state, Kenya’s chiefs are not representative of traditional forms of authority in the way that elders may be said to be, but are rather an embodiment of the state’s bureaucratic apparatus. As a key component of Kenyan bureaucracy through their position in provincial administration, chiefs have played a central role in the implementation of policies, the provision of order, and mobilization of political support. They act as an integral link between the state and ordinary citizens. While chiefs have obtained their right to govern through the state, their power has nevertheless waxed and waned over the years, as they have had to continuously negotiate legitimacy within a pluralistic landscape of locally recognized authorities. This chapter discusses chiefs’ authority in Kenya and the change and continuity of historical processes, which have created, reinforced, and challenged their position and role.

Rethinking sovereignty with reference to history and anthropology

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Wachspress
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anthropological Literature

While legal practice and scholarship are driven by the use and understanding of complex legal terminology, there has been little effort to incorporate the humanistic scholarship of anthropologists and historians into theoretical or practical accounts of these words and their usages. This paper attempts to historicise and complicate a term that serves as a bridge or meeting point between the legal and the political; sovereignty has been conceptualised since the sixteenth century as both a framing device that produces unity within the state while establishing mutual equality within the interstate order, and as the capacity to make law without being subject to that law. Recent anthropological literature has challenged the personification implicit in political–theoretical definitions of sovereignty, arguing instead for a theory of sovereignty that can be applied to ‘complicated’, post-colonial contexts, where legal orders are plural or overlapping and the state is weak or non-existent. What such critiques cannot explain, however, is how the concept of the ‘sovereign state’ became so central to political discourse on a global scale. This paper draws upon legal historical case-studies concerned with the production of the colonial or post-colonial state or the deployment of ‘sovereignty’ as a justificatory concept in colonial settings. In doing so, this paper argues for understanding sovereignty both as a practice across time and space that organises legal institutions and as a justificatory strategy in the intellectual and social history of those institutions, an approach that allows scholars to draw upon the insights of political theorists, anthropologists and historians. While primarily intended to instigate a broader interdisciplinary conversation, this paper also suggests a preliminary conclusion: sovereignty has historically been deployed as a means of including that which cannot be considered the same, mediating the colonial tension between ‘otherness’ and legal homogeneity.

scholarly journals Post-Colonial State and Bureaucracy in Bangladesh: Theoretical Understanding

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanif Miah
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
State Administration ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Personal Interests

Bureaucracy is the management apparatus of a state administration. Even in private sector, bureaucratic organization is very much essential for its smooth functioning and betterment. A legalized domination of bureaucracy only can ensure highest efficiency of an organization in a country. But the state bureaucracy of Bangladesh not developed legally from Pre-colonial period to post-colonial phase as well as an independent Bangladesh eventually. The state bureaucracy of Bangladesh is patrimonial in nature based on personal interests. The politicians and bureaucrats are interdependent in various manners for the fulfillment of their purpose illegally in Democratic Bangladesh. Simultaneously, the impact of militarism still exists in state bureaucracy of Bangladesh as it faced military rule in several times.

Impact of Political Instability on the Reality of Iraqi Political Parties: A Study According to the Results of the 2018 Elections

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Hamsa Kahtan Khalaf
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Forces

Abstract The Iraqi political parties had been affected since 2003 by the political pivotal transformations which happened according to the aftermaths of democratic elections , especially under the disruptions of American’s invasion that led in cooperation with its allies in April 2003 .So the social and political situations became ruling according to the new aspects of practicing the new stage of authority as compromise settlements and quota and ethno - sectarian distribution to be as following as compatible with theory of practicing the authority responsibilities(Power sharing ) as what happened now , besides to that all political democracy scene has greatly been distorted because of the instability penetrated within rebuilding the state and its institutions from the beginning as planned by an active powerful political forces . Many functions that are characterized by competitions among the political parties had changed the concepts of exercising democracy in a real way to be done an effective shape ,because of the political and social actors had different role ,which were being a reflection of another reality within the democracy’s process .So that all the situations had been complicated too much owing to the factors of political instability that influenced negatively on the framework of the state , especially the impacts of economic and social factors as of poverty, stagnation , ignorance and disease and another underdevelopment features which predominated over political and social retrogression levels . In addition to that the absence of an efficient administrative elites , which appeared recently under different conditions and circumstances .So it was became very obviously as we know precisely that democracy’s process in Iraq since 2003 was comprehensively undemocratic in practicing because the political forces have not democratic culture that encourage the dialogue to solve all pending problems , and have not abundant tolerance to accept the differences of others parties yet . The phenomenon of the political instability has divided into different varieties by which scattering among the addresses of suspicion and it definitely has a sectarian discourse dimension in case of dealing among each other . So these addresses and dialogues were being away from the political national conformity correctly , because of there was something like definitely as the exclusion and marginalization discourses in order to narrowing any active political party within the political process try to do pro - active role to settle all pending crises . Furthermore , the reality of political life has been under the continuous crises and conflicts over an authority along time not to gain gradually the outcomes of procurement during application the constitution clauses and valid laws , in order to preserving the political stability and to be done more far from the national unity fragmentation and the weakness of political institutions . Finally , we need too much time to reach into condition of stability , especially after opening anew spaces toward active real participation , and because there was a growing need for educated people who could administer the society and the state institutionally by existing strong government, and ultimately peoples will have ability to form new political governing elites later.

Post-colonial state, and its political elites And its political approach, from ((1958 - 1968))

2019 ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Fawaz Hammad Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
British Occupation ◽  
The People ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Political Approach ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

The State of Iraq was formed in 1921 and described as a product of the British occupation state. This was in line with what was planned by the occupation government in all fields of intellectual, cultural and political. This resulted in the establishment of the "King of Iraq" of Arab origins, as well as contributed groups of tribal or economic influence to contribute to the establishment of the Iraqi state, where the Iraqi society was suffering from poverty and ignorance and disease under the Ottoman Empire, and others may see that the Iraqi state, which came under the umbrella Britain, after the First World War, may not differ in terms of dealing with the Iraqi society from the Ottoman administration, and may be a continuation of, and worse, and therefore there was concern, and fear of all steps of the government, even if it was positive, and increased military intervention through coups policy The state and its apparatus to calculate the dominant parties But it turned into a preoccupation with the minds of the people, the futility or futility of such coups, which are no more than conflicts between families, parties, and perhaps people, using the violence that the military led to express in the three coups which We gave it our attention in this study, which included, after this introduction, three investigations and a conclusion.

The State of Liberal Democracy With Regard to Elections and Political Stability in Africa: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Tanzania and Keny

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Paul Mtasigazya
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Election Violence

This study explores the state of liberal democracy and political stability in Africa. In particular it intends to assess what is said about liberal democracy in relation to free and fair election, political stability and the politics of ethnicity in Tanzania and Kenya and the reality happening on the ground (the practice) in East African countries. The rationale for undertaking this analysis is that the East African countries have experienced political transformation: for instance, for much of the post-colonial period East African countries tended to live under one-party regime, but since 1990s East African countries embraced multiparty system. This study pays attention to assessing the outcomes of liberal democracy in East African countries in particular examining the extent to which the liberal democracy promotes free and fair elections, political stability and the mitigation of the politics of ethnicity. This study employed a comparative analysis, in which it compared the extent to which liberal democracy is practiced in Tanzania and Kenya and how far the above-mentioned parameters are realized under the broad spectrum of liberal democracy. The methods of data collection were interviews and documentary review and the discussion of the findings was organized around the sub-themes of this study. The period covered in this discussion is the contemporary period from 1990’s to 2019. The findings indicate that even though African countries have adopted liberal democracy, in some of the East African countries like Kenya, political stability and free and fair elections have not been fully realized, while in Tanzania the experience indicates that political stability is relatively realized after elections. This study concludes that even if the institutions of liberal democracy have gradually developed with partial free and fair elections, the manifestations of political instability still exist in some of the East African countries, as shown by the election violence in Kenya comparatively to Tanzania. Therefore, the interface between the liberal democracy and political stability has not been sufficiently realized in the liberal democratic tradition. This study recommends that elections as one of the pillars of liberal democracy should be properly and fairly instituted, so that the role of liberal democracy is realized in fostering peace and tranquility.

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