Beyond State Crisis?

Beyond State Crisis? PDF

Author: Mark Beissinger

Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Published: 2002-01-24

Total Pages: 538

ISBN-13: 9781930365087

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The contributors not only study state breakdown but compare the consequences of post-communism with those of post-colonialism.

Coping with Crisis in African States

Coping with Crisis in African States PDF

Author: Peter Lewis

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 9781626372290

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¿Provides a lucid approach to assessing the factors that create vulnerabilities, or possibilities for resilience, in the face of crisis ... complemented by rich empirical country chapters and clear policy recommendations.¿ ¿Rachel Beatty Riedl, Northwestern University Although large-scale conflicts, political upheavals, and social violence are common problems throughout Africa, individual countries vary greatly in both their susceptibility to these crises and their capacities for responding effectively. What accounts for this variance? How do crises emerge, and how are they resolved? When are unexpected events most likely to spiral into crisis? Are there institutions and policies that can help to manage adverse shocks? The authors of Coping with Crisis in African States assess the capability for crisis management in countries across the continent, shedding new light on the sources of instability in the region, as well as on comparative questions of state capacity and resilience. Peter M. Lewis is associate professor and director of the African Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University¿s School of Advanced International Studies. John W. Harbeson is emeritus professor of political science at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the City College of New York.

African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999

African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999 PDF

Author: Nicolas Van de Walle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2001-09-24

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780521008365

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This Book explains why African countries have remained mired in a disastrous economic crisis since the late 1970s. It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments which do not really believe that reform will be effective.

The Fabric of Peace in Africa

The Fabric of Peace in Africa PDF

Author: Pamela Aall

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2017-06-05

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1928096425

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Africa has experienced dozens of conflicts over a variety of issues during the past two decades. Responding to these conflicts requires concerted action to manage the crises – the violence, the political discord, and the humanitarian consequences of prolonged fighting. It is also necessary to address the long-term social and economic impacts of conflict, to rebuild communities, societies and states that have been torn apart. To accomplish this requires the involvement of institutions and groups rarely considered in formal official African conflict management activities: schools, universities, religious institutions, media, commercial enterprises, legal institutions, civil society groups, youth, women and migrants. These groups and organizations have an important role to play in building a sense of identity, fairness, shared norms and cohesion between state and society – all critical components of the fabric of peace and security in Africa. This volume brings together leading experts from Africa, Europe and North America to examine these critical social institutions and groups, and consider how they can either improve or impede peaceful conflict resolution. The overarching questions that are explored by the authors are: What constitutes social cohesion and resilience in the face of conflict? What are the threats to cohesion and resilience? And how can the positive elements be fostered and by whom? The second of two volumes on African conflict management capacity by the editors, The Fabric of Peace in Africa: Looking beyond the State opens new doors of understanding for students, scholars and practitioners focused on strengthening peace in Africa; the first volume, Minding the Gap: African Conflict Management in a Time of change, focused on the role of mediation and peacekeeping in managing violence and political crises.

State Legitimacy and Development in Africa

State Legitimacy and Development in Africa PDF

Author: Pierre Englebert

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781588261311

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Englebert argues that differences in economic performance both within Africa and across the developing world can be linked to differences in historical state legitimacy.

Governance and Crisis in the State in Africa

Governance and Crisis in the State in Africa PDF

Author: John Emeka Akude

Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13:

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Governance and Crisis of the State in Africa explores the problems and challenges of disruptive conflicts and conflict management in West Africa. Based on a robust analysis of a large stock of theoretical and empirical studies on the nature of the state in Africa and the incidents of state failure, fragmentation and collapse, the author argues that a major explanation of state weakness in Africa is the lack of the imperatives of good governance - itself rooted in the trajectory of the emergence of these states. Using the recent internal wars and ongoing conflicts in some West African states such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire as case studies, the author explains how the use of inappropriate methods of conflict management exacerbates these conflicts and the crisis of the nation-state in Africa. ________________ John Emeka Akude holds a PhD in political science from the University of Cologne, Germany where he teaches African Politics, Politics of Development and International Political Economy. His research interests include political economy, the state and economic development, conflict studies, state collapse and war economies as well as the transformation of political order. His publications include "Krisen und Krisenmanagement in Afrika", Zwischen Wunschdenken und Ohnmacht: Der Anspruch der Afrikanischen Union auf Konfliktmanagement in Afrika", "Bad Governance and State Collapse in Africa" as well as "Weak States and Security Threats in West Africa". He is a member of the Working Group on the Transformation of Political Order at the Chair of International Relations, University of Cologne, Germany.

The African State and the AIDS Crisis

The African State and the AIDS Crisis PDF

Author: Amy S. Patterson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-18

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1351147862

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This edited volume analyzes African state responses to the AIDS epidemic. Institutionally weak, limited in resources and lacking power in the international system, the African state has been characterized as inefficient, corrupt and illegitimate. The volume questions how aspects of the African state have affected policy responses to AIDS. It highlights how African states must initiate, develop and/or implement the long-term policy solutions necessary to combat AIDS. It employs empirical studies from the international and national arena to illustrate why some African states have been able (and willing) to address AIDS while others have not. Contributions analyze how international actors, civil society organizations, state ideology, patriarchy and state capacity have influenced policies to fight AIDS. Examining AIDS policies through the prism of African state development and linkages to domestic and international actors, this book provides a nuanced understanding of the variety of responses to AIDS in Africa.

State Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa

State Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF

Author: Catherine Scott

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-06-30

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1786732106

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How should failed states in Africa be understood? Catherine Scott here critically engages with the concept of state failure and provides an historical reinterpretation. She shows that, although the concept emerged in the context of the post-Cold War new world order, the phenomenon has been attendant throughout (and even before) the development of the Westphalian state system. Contemporary failed states, however, differ from their historical counterparts in one fundamental respect: they fail within their existing borders and continue to be recognised as something that they are not. This peculiarity derives from international norms instituted in the era of decolonisation, which resulted in the inviolability of state borders and the supposed universality of statehood. Scott argues that contemporary failed states are, in fact, failed post-colonies. Thus understood, state failure is less the failure of existing states and more the failed rooting and institutionalisation of imported and reified models of Western statehood. Drawing on insights from the histories of Uganda and Burundi, from pre-colonial polity formation to the present day, she explores why and how there have been failures to create effective and legitimate national states within the bounds of inherited colonial jurisdictions on much of the African continent.