PO4710: African Politics
Department of Political Science
Convenor: Dr Shane Mac Giollabhuí
Michaelmas term: Room 54, D’Olier Street, Tuesday 4pm
Office-hours: Tuesday, 10–12pm
email:
Introduction
This course is about democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the course of the year, we will examine two of the oldest questions in comparative politics: why do some countries become democratic, while others do not; and why do some democracies endure, while others fall apart? The course is divided into two discrete components. In Michaelmas term, we move chronologically from the colonial occupation of Africa (1880s –1950s) to the organization and ideology of nationalist movements who secured independence (largely in the 1960s), the economic crisis and closure of political space (1970s), the hollowing out of states in Africa’s ‘lost decade’ (1980s), the (re)opening of this political space in the transition to democracy (1990s), and finally the divergent trajectories – decay or consolidation – taken by different countries (2000s). In Hilary term, we follow precisely the same general lines of inquiry, but apply our comparative framework to understand a specific case, South Africa. We begin with the construction of the apartheid state (1940s–1950s) and move on to the history of the liberation struggle (1960s–1990s), the transition to an ‘ordinary democracy’ (1994), and the practice of democracy in the era of majority-rule (1994–present).
Assessment and Participation
The course will be assessed in three sections: an end-of-year exam (60%), two end-of-term essays (30%), and a series of book reviews (10%).
Term Essays
Essays should be about 2,000 words in length; the word count includes footnotes, but is exclusive of the list of references at the end of your essay. The first page of your essay needs to be the School assignment submission form. Plagiarism regulations are here and the Department's undergraduate handbook here. If a student writes an essay that is more than 10% above the word limit, the grade will be reduced by 10%. Please provide the word count at the beginning of each essay. All late work, unless excused in advance by the course lecturer, or justified by medical certificate or tutors note, will be penalized at a rate of five marks per day. Under no circumstances will work be accepted after the set work has been marked and handed back to other students, or after the end of Trinity lecture term.
Please submit via www.turnitin.com; class ID number is 13395671, class name is PO4710 African Politics, class enrolment password is fosterplace. Please use the standard citation procedures. If you are unsure of these procedures, please consult the Style Manual for Political Science, revised edition (1993), or The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition (1993). Alternatively, examine any major Political Science journal. On other matters of style, please consult: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4 ed. Boston; London: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
In Michaelmas term, all students must address this question: ‘Is there something exceptional about politics in Africa (compared to other world regions)?’ The MT essay is due at 12pm, Friday November 25, 2016.
In Hilary term, all students must address this question: ‘Is there something exceptional about politics in South Africa (compared to other African countries)?’ The HT essay is due at 12pm, Friday March 3, 2017.
Book Reviews
The course is taught in a seminar style, which means discussion is student-led. It is important, then, that every participant prepares adequately. In order to encourage consistent and effective participation, all students must complete a set of book reviews on 14 out of the course’s XX ‘core’ books. (Example: Week 6, ‘The Authoritarian Turn in Africa’, Jackson, Robert H., & Carl G. Rosberg. Personal Rule in Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.) If students fulfill the following three conditions, they will receive the full 10% of marks:
1) All book reviews must be submitted in hard-copy format in class (every Tuesday, 4pm). Electronic copies will not be accepted.
2) Each book review will be marked on a pass-fail basis; students must submit 15 out of 19 reviews that meet the ‘pass’ standard (see the department’s undergraduate handbook for more precise guidelines on marking); there is no option to re-submit a ‘fail’ review.
3) The book review should be approximately 1,000 words in length; please conform to the standard citation and stylistic procedures.
If, conversely, students do not fulfil all of these criteria, they will receive 0 of the 10 available marks.
Assignment, Week 1
In Week 1, there is a mandatory assignment (due in class – do not email it to me – on Tuesday, September 27. I want you to read the article by Howard and Roessler (attached) and use their typology – described in Figure 1 (p. 367) – to classify every country in sub-Saharan Africa according to regime type. If your name begins with the letters A-H, please classify each country’s regime status for the year 1994; if your surname begins with the letters I-Q, please classify each country’s regime status for the year 2002; if your surname begins with the letters R-Z, please classify each country’s regime status for the year 2015. Where do you find the data to match each case to the typology? Start with Freedom House, but see the reading on Weeks 11 and 12 of Michaelmas term for other sources on the subject. Note: have a look at S. Lindberg’s new project measuring regime type, it’s very recent not discussed in the readings.
Michaelmas Term
Introductory Books on African Politics
Nicholas Cheeseman, David Anderson, and Andrea Schreiber (eds), Handbook of African Politics (London: Routledge, 2013).
Hyden, Goran. African Politics in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Tordoff, William. Government and Politics in Africa. 4 ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Thomson, Alex. An Introduction to African Politics. London: Routledge, 2000.
Nugent, Paul. Africa since Independence: A Comparative Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Smith, Brian C. Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of Political Change and Development. 2 ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
Reference works
• Africa Confidential www.africa-confidential.com
• Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents. Edited by Colin Legum et. al.
• Africa South of the Sahara
• South African Institute of Race Relations' annual Survey of Race Relations.
• IES Databases (the Economist, the Financial Times and Quest) via OXLIP
For a general guide to the sources, see:
*Rylander, Christina. Studying Africa: A Guide to the Sources. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute, 2005, available online (http://www.nai.uu.se/library/africainfo/studyingafrica/).
Main Journals
• Africa
• Africa Development
• Africa Today
• African Affairs
• African Studies
• Annual Review of Political Science
• Anthropos
• African Development
• Canadian Journal of African Studies
• CODESRIA Bulletin
• Development and Change
• Government and Opposition
• Journal of African History
• Journal of Asian and African Studies
• Journal of Contemporary African Studies
• Journal of Democracy
• Journal of Development Studies
• Journal of Modern African Studies
• Journal of Southern African Studies
• Journal of Third World Studies
• Nationalism and Ethnic Politics
• Nations and Nationalism
• Nordic Journal of African Studies
• Politique Africaine
• Review of African Political Economy
• Royal African Society
• South African Review
• Third World Quarterly
• Transformation
• World Development
Newspapers and other periodicals
• Africa Confidential www.africa-confidential.com
• Africa Report
allAfrica.com
• Economist (U.K.)
• Financial Times (U.K.)
• Jeune Afrique
• South African Labour Bulletin (S.A.)
• Mail and Guardian, Business Day (S.A.)
• Le Monde (France)
• Weekly Review (Kenya)
• Guardian (Lagos)
Michaelmas Term
Week 1: Introduction to African Politics
Anderson, David & Nic Cheeseman. “An Introduction to African Politics”, NicholasCheeseman, David Anderson, and Andrea Schreiber (eds), Handbook of African Politics (London: Routledge, 2013).
Barkan, Joel. "The Many Faces of Africa." Harvard International Review 24, no. 2 (2002).
Chabal, Patrick. “Introduction: Thinking about politics in Africa”, in Patrick Chabal (ed), Political Domination in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Hyden, Goran. African Politics in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Leys, Colin. "Confronting the African Tragedy." New Left Review 204 (1994).
Ngozie Chimamanda Adichie. ‘The Dangers of a Single Story’. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Wainaina, Binyavanga. How to Write about Africa. http://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/
Week 2: State and Society in Precolonial Africa
Book Review (choose one of the three)
*Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
*Appiah, Kwame Anthony. In my Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
* Emily Lynn Osborn. Our New Husbands Are Here: Households, Gender, and Politics in a West African State from the Slave Trade to Colonial Rule. Athens: Ohio University Press, New African Histories, 2011.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. The Nuer. A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. Chapter 4.
Bates, Robert. 1983. "The Centralization of African Societies," chapter 2 in Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Week 3: Colonialism in Africa
Book Review:
*Mamdani, Mahmood. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. London: James Currey Publishers, 1999.
Parker, John and Richard Reid. The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Section on “The Colonial Encounter”.
Freund, Bill. 2000. "Democracy and the Colonial Heritage in Africa: Revisiting Mamdani's Citizen and Subject." Left History 7, 1.
Ekeh, Peter. 1975. ‘Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement’. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17(1): 91-112.
Lonsdale, John. “Political accountability in African history”, in Patrick Chabal (ed), Political Domination in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Week 4: State and Society in Postcolonial Africa
Book Review:
*Migdal, Joel. Strong Societies and Weak states: State-Society Relations & State Capabilities in the Third World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
Erdmann, Gero. “Neopatrimonialism and political regimes”, Nicholas Cheeseman, David Anderson, and Andrea Schreiber (eds), Handbook of African Politics (London: Routledge, 2013). OR
Erdmann, Gero. “Neopatrimonialism revisited: beyond a catch-all concept”, GIGA Working Paper, No. 16.
Van de Walle, Nicolas. African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, Chapter 3.
Bratton, Michael, and Nicolas Van de Walle. Democratic Experiments in Africa : Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, Chapter 2.
Bayart, Jean-Francois. The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. London: Longman, 1993.
Chabal, Patrick, and Jean-Pascal Daloz. Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument. Oxford International African Institute in association with James Currey, 1999.
Jackson, Robert H., and Carl G. Rosberg. Personal Rule in Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Joseph, Richard. Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1987.
Young, Crawford. 2004. ‘The End of the Post-Colonial State in Africa? Reflections on Changing African Political Dynamics’, African Affairs, 103 (401)
Bates, Robert H. “The centralization of African societies” and “The preservation of order in Stateless Societies” in Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa, UCLA Press, 1983.
Jackson, Robert H. and Carl C. Rosberg. “Why Africa’s Weak States Persist: The Empirical and Juridical in Statehood”, in World Politics, No. 35, 1, 1982.
Week 5: The Organization and Ideology of Nationalist Movements
Book Review (choose one of the following five):
*Hodgkin, Thomas. 1961. African Political Parties: An Introductory Guide. Baltimore: Penguin Books.
*Lewis, W. Arthur. Politics in West Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.
*Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Vol. One. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Chapter on ‘African Labyrinth’
*Schachter Morgenthau, Ruth. 1964. Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Zolberg, Aristide R. Creating Political Order: The Party-States of West Africa Chicago Rand McNally, 1966.
(for an excellent review of these texts, see Erdmann, Gero. "Party Research: Western European Bias and the 'African Labyrinth'." Democratization 11, no. 3 (2004))
Coleman, James. “Nationalism in Colonial Africa”, American Political Science Review, 1945, 3 (1954) 404-426.
Davidson, Basil. The Black Man’s Burden. London: Times Books, 1992. Chapter 6
Hyden, Goran. African Politics in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Chapter 2
Kaunda, Kenneth. Zambia Shall be Free, London: Heinemann, 1962. Chapter 17
Rotberg, Robert I. The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The Making of Malawi and Zambia, 1953-1964, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapters 3, 5, 6.
Schmidt, Elizabeth. 2005. "Top Down or Bottom Up? Nationalist Mobilization Reconsidered, with Special Reference to Guinea (French West Africa)," American Historical Review 110: 4, pp. 975-1014.
Week 6: The Authoritarian Turn in Africa (1970s)
Book Review:
* Jackson, Robert H., & Carl G. Rosberg. Personal Rule in Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Cheeseman, Nicholas. 2012. "Nationalism, One-party States, and Military Rule." In Handbook of African Politics, edited by Nicholas Cheeseman and David Anderson. London: Routledge.
Bates, Robert, Coatsworth, JH, Williamson JG. “Lost decades: post-independence performance in Latin America and Africa. Journal of Economic History, 67, 4 (2007).
Bienen, H.. ‘One-party systems in Africa. Authoritarian politics in modern society: the dynamics of established one-party systems’, in S. P. Huntington and C. H. Moore. Authoritarian Politics in Modern Societies. New York; London, Basic Books, 1970.
Bratton, Michael. 1980. The local politics of rural development: peasant and party-state in Zambia. London: University Press of New England.
Gertzel, C.J., C.L. Baylies, and M. Szeftel. 1984. The dynamics of the one-party state in Zambia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Hyden, G. & Leys, C. “Elections and Politics in Single-Party states: the case of Kenya and Tanzania”, British Journal of Political Science 1(2), 1972.
Szeftel, Maurice. 1982. "Political graft and the spoils system in Zambia: the state as a resource in itself." Review of African Political Economy no. 9 (24):4-21.