Governing Kenya

Governing Kenya
Author: Gedion Onyango
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2021-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 303061784X

This book is authored by some of the renowned scholars in Africa who take on the task to understand how Kenya is governed in this century from a public policy perspective. The book’s public policy approach addresses three general and pertinent questions: (1) how are policies made in a political context where change is called for, but institutional legacies tend to stand in the way? (2) how are power and authority shared among institutional actors in government and society? and, (3) how effective is policymaking at a time when policy problems are becoming increasingly complex and involving multiple stakeholders in Africa? This book provides an updated and relevant foundation for teaching policy, politics and administration in Kenya. It is also a useful guide for politicians, the civil society, and businesses with an interest in how Kenya is governed. Furthermore, it addresses issues of comparability: how does the Kenyan case fit into a wider African context of policymaking? ‘This volume is a major contribution to comparative policy analysis by focusing on the policy processes in Kenya, a country undergoing modernization of its economic and political institutions. Written by experts with a keen eye for the commonalities and differences the country shares with other nations, it covers a range of topics like the role of experts and politicians in policymaking, the nature of public accountability, the impact of social media on policy actors, and the challenges of teaching policy studies in the country. As a first comprehensive study of an African nation, Governing Kenya will remain a key text for years to come’. —Michael Howlett, Burnaby Mountain Chair of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, Canada ‘A superb example of development scholarship which sets aside ‘best practice’ nostrums and focuses on governance challenges specific to time and place while holding on to a comparative perspective. Useful to scholars and practitioners not only in Kenya but across developing areas. I strongly recommend it!’ —Brian Levy teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. ‘This book is an exploration of important deliberations - of interest for those of us interested in deepening the understanding of public policy theories and their application within a specific African setting’. —Wilson Muna, Lecturer of Public Policy, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya ‘This collection of think pieces on public policy in Kenya gives the reader theoretical and practical hooks critical to the analysis of the implementation of the sovereign policy document in Kenya, the 2010 Constitution’. —Willy Mutunga, Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court, Republic of Kenya, 2011-2016 ‘Governing Kenya provides a comprehensive analysis of public policymaking in Kenya. The book integrates public policy theory with extensive empirical examples to provide a valuable portrait of the political and economic influences on policy choices in this important African country. The editors have brought together a group of significant scholars to produce an invaluable contribution to the literature on public policy in Africa’. —B. Guy Peters, Maurice Folk Professor of American Government, University of Pittsburgh, USA

The Future of Economic and Social Rights

The Future of Economic and Social Rights
Author: Katharine G. Young
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 711
Release: 2019-04-11
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108418139

Captures significant transformations in the theory and practice of economic and social rights in constitutional and human rights law.

Social and Economic Rights in Africa

Social and Economic Rights in Africa
Author: Nsongurua J. Udombana
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023
Genre: Basic needs
ISBN: 9781032412825

"Social and economic rights have hitherto been marginalised in mainstream legal and political discourses and treated as second-class citizens in the human rights family. In recent years, these rights are receiving increasing attention in law and politics, arguably because they raise existential questions on human security and dignity. This one-stop volume examines the international and public law perspectives on socio-economic rights in Africa. Working on the premise that these rights are normative and justiciable, the author methodically and expertly examines the legal frameworks for their protection in global, regional, and national instruments, infusing the analysis with African and comparative jurisprudence. In blending theory with practice, the book also reflects on some governance challenges that continue to hobble the effective realisation of socio-economic rights in Africa. It is a seminal contribution on an important field, an ideal companion for human rights practitioners, international and constitutional lawyers, judges, government advisors, students, social workers, and everyone who desires 'freedom from fear and want'"--

The State of Economic and Social Human Rights

The State of Economic and Social Human Rights
Author: Lanse Minkler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2013-01-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107028027

Original scholarship on economic and social human rights from cutting-edge scholars in the fields of economics, law, political science, sociology and anthropology.

Social Rights Jurisprudence

Social Rights Jurisprudence
Author: Malcolm Langford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 705
Release: 2009-01-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139473980

In the space of two decades, social rights have emerged from the shadows and margins of human rights jurisprudence. The authors in this book provide a critical analysis of almost two thousand judgments and decisions from twenty-nine national and international jurisdictions. The breadth of the decisions is vast, from the resettlement of evictees to the regulation of private medical plans to the development of state programs to address poverty and illiteracy. The jurisprudence not only implicates our understanding of economic, social, and cultural rights, but also challenges the philosophical debates that question whether these rights can and should be justiciable.

Courting Social Justice

Courting Social Justice
Author: Varun Gauri
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2010-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521145169

This book is a first-of-its-kind, five-country empirical study of the causes and consequences of social and economic rights litigation. Detailed studies of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and South Africa present systematic and nuanced accounts of court activity on social and economic rights in each country. The book develops new methodologies for analyzing the sources of and variation in social and economic rights litigation, explains why actors are now turning to the courts to enforce social and economic rights, measures the aggregate impact of litigation in each country, and assesses the relevance of the empirical findings for legal theory. This book argues that courts can advance social and economic rights under the right conditions precisely because they are never fully independent of political pressures.

For Money and Elders

For Money and Elders
Author: Robert W. Blunt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019
Genre: Kenya
ISBN: 022665575X

Many observers of Kenya's complicated history see causes for concern, from the use of public office for private gain to a constitutional structure historically lopsided towards the executive branch. Yet efforts from critics and academics to diagnose the country's problems do not often consider what these fiscal and political issues mean to ordinary Kenyans. How do Kenyans express their own political understanding, make sense of governance, and articulate what they expect from their leaders? In For Money and Elders, Robert W. Blunt addresses these questions by turning to the political, economic, and religious signs in circulation in Kenya today. He examines how Kenyans attempt to make sense of political instability caused by the uncertainty of authority behind everything from currency to title deeds. When the symbolic order of a society is up for grabs, he shows, violence may seem like an expedient way to enforce the authority of signs. Drawing on fertile concepts of sovereignty, elderhood, counterfeiting, acephaly, and more, Blunt explores phenomena as diverse as the destabilization of ritual "oaths," public anxieties about Satanism with the advent of democratic reform, and mistrust of official signs. The result is a fascinating glimpse into Kenya's past and present and a penetrating reflection on meanings of violence in African politics.

Trust, Courts and Social Rights

Trust, Courts and Social Rights
Author: David Vitale
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1009098551

Proposes an innovative legal framework for judicially enforcing social rights that is rooted in public trust in government.