The Precarious balance : state and society in Africa / edited by Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan.
Since independence, the political institutions of many African states have undergone a process of consolidation and subsequent deterioration. Constrained by external economic dependency and an acute scarcity of economic and technical resources, state officials have demonstrated a diminished capacity...
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| Online Access: |
Full Text (via Taylor & Francis) |
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| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York, NY :
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group,
2019.
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| Series: | African modernization and development series.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Since independence, the political institutions of many African states have undergone a process of consolidation and subsequent deterioration. Constrained by external economic dependency and an acute scarcity of economic and technical resources, state officials have demonstrated a diminished capacity to regulate their societies. Public policies are agreed upon but ineffectively implemented by the weak institutions of the state. Although scholars have analyzed the various facets of state-building in detail, little systematic attention has been given to the issue of the decline of the state and mechanisms to cope with state ineffectiveness in Africa. This book focuses especially on the character of the postcolonial state in Africa, the nature of and reasons for state deterioration, and the mechanisms and policies for coping with state malfunction. Scholars from Africa, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East combine a broad understanding of African political processes with expertise on specific regions. Their analytic and comparative perspective provides a comprehensive and timely treatment of this vital and heretofore neglected theme in African politics. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (x, 357 pages) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 042931406X 9780429314063 9781000269000 1000269000 9781000233063 1000233065 9781000304947 1000304949 |
| Source of Description, Etc. Note: | Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed July 2, 2019) |
| Biographical or Historical Data: | Donald Rothchild is professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Racial Bargaining in Independent Kenya and coeditor of State Versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas (Westview, 1982). Naomi Chazan is senior lecturer in political science and African studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of An Anatomy of Ghanaian Politics: Managing Political Recession, 19691982 (Westview, 1983) and coauthor of Ghana: Coping with Uncertainty (Westview, 1986) |