Four African Political Systems


Book Description







African Politics


Book Description

Africa is a continent of 54 countries and over a billion people. However, despite the rich diversity of the African experience, it is striking that continuations and themes seem to be reflected across the continent, particularly south of the Sahara. Questions of underdevelopment, outside exploitation, and misrule are characteristic of many - if not most-states in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this Very Short Introduction Ian Taylor explores how politics is practiced on the African continent, considering the nature of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Exploring the historical and contemporary factors which account for Africa's underdevelopment, he also analyses why some African countries suffer from high levels of political violence while others are spared. Unveilling the ways in which African state and society actually function beyond the formal institutional façade, Taylor discusses how external factors - both inherited and contemporary - act upon the continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.




The Politics of the Developing Areas


Book Description

A pioneering venture, this book is the first major effort toward a valid comparison of the political systems of Asia, Africa, the Near East, and Latin America. After establishing a theoretical framework based on a functional approach to comparative politics, the authors apply their scheme to Southeast Asia (Lucian W. Pye), South Asia (Myron Weiner), SubSaharan Africa (James S. Coleman), the Near East (Dankwart Rustow), and Latin America (George I. Blanksten). In each area they survey the political background, the nature and function of political, governmental, and authoritative structures, the processes of change and means of political integration. The contributors have performed an extraordinarily difficult feat of classification, description, synthesis, and analysis in what promises to be a book of seminal importance in comparative politics. Originally published in 1960. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.




African Political Thought


Book Description

For most of its history, the African continent has witnessed momentous political change, remarkable philosophical innovation, and the complex cross-fertilization of ideologies and belief systems. This definitive study surveys the concepts, values, and historical upheavals that have shaped African political systems from the ancient period to the postcolonial era and beyond. Beginning with the emergence of indigenous political institutions, it traces the most important developments in African history, including the Africanization of Islam, liberal democratic movements, socialism, Pan-Africanism, and Africanist-Populist resistance to the neoliberal world order. The result is an invaluable resource on a region too often ignored in the history of political thought.




Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Africa


Book Description

Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africa’s diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africa’s multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continent’s long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.




Democracy in Africa


Book Description

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.




Indigenous African Institutions


Book Description

George Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions presents a detailed and convincing picture of pre-colonial and post-colonial Africa - its cultures, traditions, and indigenous institutions, including participatory democracy.




Africa


Book Description

Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 1977, Africa has established itself as the most popular introductory text for African studies courses in North America. This third edition has been completely revised and brought up to date since the 1986 edition, reflecting changes in African society and politics, and in the scholarship available on this vast and complex continent. Contents I. Introduction 1. Africa: Problems and Perspectives. Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara 2. The Contemporary Map of Africa. Michael L. McNulty II. The African Past 3. Prehistoric Africa. Kathy D. Schick 4. Aspects of Early African History. John Lamphear and Toyin Falola 5. Islam and African Societies. John H. Hanson 6. Africa and Europe before 1900. Curtis A. Keim 7. The Colonial Era. Sheldon Gellar 8. Decolonization, Independence, and the Failure of Politics. Edmond J. Keller III. Society and Culture 9. Social Organization in Africa. John C. McCall 10. Economic Life in African Villages and Towns. Mahir Saul 11. African Systems of Thought. Ivan Karp 12. African Art. Patrick McNaughton and Diane Pelrine 13. African Music Performed. Ruth M. Stone 14. Popular Culture in Urban Africa. Dele Jegede 15. African Literature. Eileen Julien 16. Social Change in Contemporary Africa. Claire Robertson 17. Law and Society in Contemporary Africa. Takyiwaa Manuh IV. Economics and Politics 18. African Politics since Independence. N. Brian Winchester 19. Economic Change in Contemporary Africa. Sara Berry 20. The African Development Crisis. Richard Stryker and Stephen N. Ndegwa 21. South Africa. C. R. D. Halisi and Patrick O'Meara Africana Resources for Undergraduates: A Bibliographic Essay. Nancy J. Schmidt




The Origin of the State


Book Description

An enlarged and revised version of articles first published in the Freeman, July 19 and 26, 1922--cf. Preface.