A New Name for an Old Practice: Vigilantes in South-Western Nigeria

Africa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Fourchard

It is often considered probable that the recent rise of vigilante groups in Nigeria means an erosion of the state monopoly of legitimate violence as well as a marked decline in state sovereignty over the national territory. However, this conclusion does not take into consideration the fact that in Nigeria ‘vigilante’ is a term initially proposed by the police in the mid-1980s as a substitute for an older practice known in the western part of the country since the colonial period as the ‘hunter guard’ or ‘night guard’ system. Hence, instead of looking at vigilante groups as a response to a supposed increase in crime or a supposed decline of the police force, we should consider them – initially at least – as a first attempt to introduce forms of community policing in order to improve the appalling image of the police. As such, in south-western Nigeria ‘vigilante’ is a new name for an old practice of policing that should be considered in an extended timeframe (from the 1930s onward), a period in which violent crime has been perceived as a potential danger. Finally, within the ongoing debate on the ‘privatization of the state’ in Africa, non-state policing in Nigeria testifies to a continuum existing since the colonial period rather than to the appearance of new phenomena in the 1980s or the 1990s.

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.


Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury

This chapter offers an alternative view of the incidence and duration of insurgencies in the postcolonial world. Insurgencies and civil wars are seen as the primary symptom of state weakness, the inability of the central government to monopolize violence. Challenging extant explanations that identify poverty and low state capacity as the cause of insurgencies, the chapter shows that colonial insurgencies, also occurring in the context of poverty and state weakness, were shorter and ended in regime victories, while contemporary insurgencies are longer and states are less successful at subduing them. The reason for this is the development of exclusive identities—based on ethnicity, religion, tribe—in the colonial period. These identities serve as bases for mobilization to challenge state power and demand services from the state. Either way, such mobilization means that popular demands for services exceed the willingness to disarm and/or pay taxes, that is, to supply the state.


This collection brings together scholars of jurisprudence and political theory to probe the question of ‘legitimacy’. It offers discussions that interrogate the nature of legitimacy, how legitimacy is intertwined with notions of statehood, and how legitimacy reaches beyond the state into supranational institutions and international law. Chapter I considers benefit-based, merit-based, and will-based theories of state legitimacy. Chapter II examines the relationship between expertise and legitimate political authority. Chapter III attempts to make sense of John Rawls’s account of legitimacy in his later work. Chapter IV observes that state sovereignty persists, since no alternative is available, and that the success of the assortment of international organizations that challenge state sovereignty depends on their ability to attract loyalty. Chapter V argues that, to be complete, an account of a state’s legitimacy must evaluate not only its powers and its institutions, but also its officials. Chapter VI covers the rule of law and state legitimacy. Chapter VII considers the legitimation of the nation state in a post-national world. Chapter VIII contends that legitimacy beyond the state should be understood as a subject-conferred attribute of specific norms that generates no more than a duty to respect those norms. Chapter IX is a reply to critics of attempts to ground the legitimacy of suprastate institutions in constitutionalism. Chapter X examines Joseph Raz’s perfectionist liberalism. Chapter XI attempts to bring some order to debates about the legitimacy of international courts.


1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naditn Rouhana ◽  
Asʿad Ghanem

The vast majority of states in the international system, democratic and non-democratic, are multi-ethnic (Gurr 1993). A liberal-democratic multi-ethnic state serves the collective needs of all its citizens regardless of their ethnic affiliation, and citizenship—legally recognized membership in the political structure called a state—is the single criterion for belonging to the state and for granting equal opportunity to all members of the system. Whether a multi-ethnic democratic state should provide group rights above and beyond individual legal equality is an ongoing debate (Gurr & Harff 1994).


2021 ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
Anna Turenko

Economic sovereignty and its elements are analyzed in the article. It is emphasized that a significant step for rethinking approaches to the characteristics of the sovereignty of the state, in particular, the economic became European integration processes. On the example of tax sovereignty as a basic component of economic sovereignty, it is argued that state sovereignty and its realization depends not only on the right of state to independently decide on tax-legal regulation, but also on the nature of those measures selected by the state to carry out regulatory influences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-254
Author(s):  
Jacob Omede

This paper titled “Ethnic and political conflicts in the Eastern Senatorial Districts of Kogi State, Nigeria: Some suggested therapeutic measures” was an attempt to bring a relatively lasting solution to the incessant ethnic and political crises in the said senatorial district of the state. In an attempt to do this, the paper examined at the background the characteristics or nature of the Igala, Bassa and Ebira people who are the nationalities that are the original inhabitants of the land by pointing out how they lived harmoniously in the past. The paper in a further attempt to examine the causes of conflicts in this district had to do this in relation to Carl Max theory of conflict reviewed by Chappelow. The possible causes of ethnic and political conflicts in this area that the paper identified and discussed included land dispute, poverty and unemployment, loss of morality, desire to test and manifest “black power” as well as godlessness and bad politicking. The consequences of these which included the destruction of lives and properties, love lost, vendetta, vacation of ancestral homes as well as decline in commercial and agricultural activities were pointed out and also discussed. The paper concluded by recommending proper boundary delineation, more frequent political and moral education, formation of peace clubs as well as depoliticizing community policing and godly living as possible panaceas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 21-23
Author(s):  
Aleksey L. Bredikhin ◽  
◽  
Evgeniy D. Protsenko ◽  

In this article, the authors analyze the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted in 2020, with a view to their influence on the state of Russian sovereignty and note that the topic of sovereignty is central to these amendments. Researchers conclude that the amendments constitute, first and foremost, the strengthening of the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, the autonomy of state jurisdiction, and the increasing status and role of Russia in the world political system.


FIAT JUSTISIA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Endang Puji Lestari

The state sovereignty over airspace with its complete and exclusive nature experiences a significant dynamic in both its concept and implementation in the international air law. Sovereignty over the airspace not only provides legislative, executive, and judicialauthorities of the state but also puts an obligation on the state to provide facilities for aviation safety. The reason for aviation safety airspace of a sovereign state can be delegated to other states to manage the service of navigation, for example, Indonesian air spaces in the Natuna and Batam, are maintained by Singapore for the sake of aviation safety. The taking over of the management of FIR in Batam and Natuna had been carried out through several steps. First, establishing Civil Military Aviation Coordination (CMAC) as outlined in the Government Regulation (Ministry of Transportation Regulation Number 55 on 2016) concerning the order of the national airspace. Second, evaluating the implementation of air navigation by reformulating the institutional of LPPNPI, evaluating the cooperation agreement between the Government of Indonesia and Singapore, and providing air navigation service during the transition period in Natuna Islands. Third, conducting the taking over concept phase by phase, in which the first phase, Singapore only provides air navigation service, while Indonesia only monitors. The second phase, Indonesia provides air navigation services, while Singapore only monitors, and for the third phase, as the final implementation, Indonesia provides air navigation services fully. Keywords: Delegation, Sovereignty, Air Space, Air Navigation, Agreement


Author(s):  
А.А. Борзов

Учение представителя раннего итальянского гуманизма, выдающегося философа и правоведа, Марсилия Падуанского [1270(80) – 1342(43)] о государстве актуализирует платоновские политико-правовые идеалы. Мысль Платона о сущностном единстве человека и государства, формируемом общим источником их добродетели – идеей справедливости, составляет теоретическое основание гуманизма падуанца, его философско-правового учения о совокупной воле людей как источнике государственного суверенитета. The teaching of the representative of early Italian humanism, an outstanding philosopher and lawyer, Marsil of Padua [1270 (80) - 1342 (43)] about the state actualizes Plato's political and legal ideals. Plato's thought about the essential unity of man and the state, formed by the common source of their virtue - the idea of ​​justice, constitutes the theoretical basis of Padua's humanism, his philosophical and legal doctrine of the collective will of people as a source of state sovereignty.


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