African Politics in Comparative Perspective

African Politics in Comparative Perspective
Author: Goran Hyden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2013
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107030471

This revised and expanded second edition of African Politics in Comparative Perspective reviews fifty years of research on politics in Africa and addresses some issues in a new light, keeping in mind the changes in Africa since the first edition was written in 2004. The book synthesizes insights from different scholarly approaches and offers an original interpretation of the knowledge accumulated in the field. Goran Hyden discusses how research on African politics relates to the study of politics in other regions and mainstream theories in comparative politics. He focuses on such key issues as why politics trumps economics, rule is personal, state is weak and policies are made with a communal rather than an individual lens. The book also discusses why in the light of these conditions agriculture is problematic, gender contested, ethnicity manipulated and relations with Western powers a matter of defiance.

The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective

The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective
Author: Crawford Young
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780300068795

In this comprehensive and original study, a distinguished specialist and scholar of African affairs argues that the current crisis in African development can be traced directly to European colonial rule, which left the continent with a "singularly difficult legacy" that is unique in modern history. Crawford Young proposes a new conception of the state, weighing the different characteristics of earlier European empires (including those of Holland, Portugal, England, and Venice) and distilling their common qualities. He then presents a concise and wide-ranging history of colonization in Africa, from the era of construction through consolidation and decolonization. Young argues that several qualities combined to make the European colonial experience in Africa distinctive. The high number of nations competing for power around the continent and the necessity to achieve effective occupation swiftly yet make the colonies self-financing drove colonial powers toward policies of "ruthless extractive action." The persistent, virulent racism that established a distance between rulers and subjects was especially central to African colonial history. Young concludes by turning his sights to other regions of the once-colonized world, comparing the fates of former African colonies to their counterparts elsewhere. In tracing both the overarching traits and variations in African colonial states, he makes a strong case that colonialism has played a critical role in shaping the fate of this troubled continent.

Africa's Development in Historical Perspective

Africa's Development in Historical Perspective
Author: Emmanuel Akyeampong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2014-08-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107041155

Why has Africa remained persistently poor over its recorded history? Has Africa always been poor? What has been the nature of Africa's poverty and how do we explain its origins? This volume takes a necessary interdisciplinary approach to these questions by bringing together perspectives from archaeology, linguistics, history, anthropology, political science, and economics. Several contributors note that Africa's development was at par with many areas of Europe in the first millennium of the Common Era. Why Africa fell behind is a key theme in this volume, with insights that should inform Africa's developmental strategies.

Tanzanian Development

Tanzanian Development
Author: Andrew Coulson
Publisher: Eastern Africa
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781847011978

An up-to-date, comparative, examination of the developing economy of Tanzania and its grass roots progress out of poverty, with pointers to its wider implications for policymakers, NGOS and practitioners. Over the past thirty years, in common with a number of other Sub-Saharan African countries, Tanzania has experienced a period of painful adjustment followed by relatively rapid and stable economic growth. However the extent of progress on poverty reduction and the sustainability of the development process are both open to question. In this book, prominent international observers provide a range of different perspectives on the process of development over time and the issues facing a rapidly growing African economy: political economy; agriculture and rural livelihoods; industrial development; urbanisation; aid and trade; tourism; and the use of natural resources. Comparisons are drawn with other African economies as well as other developing countries, such as Vietnam. An invaluable deep review of Tanzania's economy and development, the book also looks at the wider implications of the research for the futureon the continent and beyond. David Potts is Honorary Visiting Researcher at the University of Bradford and was Head of the Bradford Centre for International Development 2015-16. He worked for six years as an economist in Tanzania's Ministry of Agriculture in the 1980s, has had many subsequent short-term assignments in the country and is co-editor of Development Planning and Poverty Reduction (2003).

Inclusive Trade in Africa

Inclusive Trade in Africa
Author: David Luke
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2019-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429684754

Providing the first book-length analysis of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), this volume asks how can it be ensured that the AfCFTA is effectively implemented to deliver inclusive trade in Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will cover an African market of 1.2 billion people and GDP of over $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union. Yet, trade policy increasingly appreciates that free trade is not enough; trade must also be inclusive to deliver developmental benefits. With contributions from leading trade policy authors across Africa and beyond, this book offers insights into the development and implementation of the AfCFTA and serves as a reference for stakeholders interested in trade in Africa more broadly. The contributors assess what important lessons can be drawn from the experiences of regional integration in and beyond Africa, including from success stories like ASEAN as well as from failures like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. An important new work for researchers and policymakers focusing on African trade and economic policy, and trade policy more generally.

Power Politics in Africa

Power Politics in Africa
Author: Olusola Ogunnubi
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2020-11-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1527561941

This collection of essays examines the subject of power politics in Africa, paying special attention to the interests of African regional powers, as well as their capabilities and strategies in the international arena. It provides a theoretical bridge between concerns for militarised national interest, perpetual distrust and insecurity, struggles for power and hegemony in power politics, and the spirit of pan-African solidarity, brotherhood, consensus, cooperation and integration. It is on these bases that this volume offers rich empirical insight into leading regional powers in Africa with special attention given to Nigeria and South Africa. It serves to contribute African perspectives to the field of International Relations, particularly regarding power politics, which is important in terms of Africanising the narratives of a subject matter that is largely considered as Eurocentric in African and other non-Western societies.

Beyond State Crisis?

Beyond State Crisis?
Author: Mark Beissinger
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2002-01-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781930365087

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

The Comparative Political Economy of Development

The Comparative Political Economy of Development
Author: Barbara Harriss-White
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2009-12-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135171939

This book illustrates the enduring relevance and vitality of the comparative political economy of development approach promoted among others by a group of social scientists in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors demonstrate the viability of this approach as researchers and academics become more convinced of the inadequacies of orthodox approaches to the understanding of development. Detailed case material obtained from comparative field research in Africa and South Asia informs analyses of exploitation in agriculture; the dynamics of rural poverty; seasonality; the non farm economy; class formation; labour and unfreedom; the gendering of the labour force; small scale production and contract farming; social networks in industrial clusters; stigma and discrimination in the rural and urban economy and its politics. Reasoned policy suggestions are made and an analysis of the comparative political economy of development approach is applied to the situation of Africa and South Asia. Aptly presenting the relation between theory and empirical material in a dynamic and interactive way, the book offers meaningful and powerful explanations of what is happening in the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of South Asia today. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, rural sociology, political economy, policy and practice of development and Indian and African studies.