Explore the vast range of titles available.

This revised and expanded second edition reviews fifty years of research on politics in Africa. The book synthesizes insights from different scholarly approaches and offers an original interpretation of the knowledge accumulated in the field, keeping in mind the changes since the first edition was written in 2004.

Global imperial designs, which have been in place since conquest by western powers, did not suddenly evaporate after decolonization. Global coloniality as a leitmotif of the empire became the order of the day, with its invisible technologies of subjugation continuing to reproduce Africa's subaltern position, a position characterized by perceived deficits ranging from a lack of civilization, a lack of writing and a lack of history to a lack of development, a lack of human rights and a lack of democracy. The author's sharply critical perspective reveals how this epistemology of alterity has kept Africa ensnared within colonial matrices of power, serving to justify external interventions in African affairs, including the interference with liberation struggles and disregard for African positions. Evaluating the quality of African responses and available options, the author opens up a new horizon that includes cognitive justice and new humanism.

In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

The African Union has been a major factor in establishing peace, security and development in Africa. Today, however, the intranational body is struggling in the midst of a perceived dissipating appetite for supporting continental institutions. Previously seen as the panacea to Africa's continuing problems with violence and corruption in society, under the slogan \"African Solutions to African Problems\", the African Union, this book argues, seems to have run its course. Recognizing that the measured successes in political emancipation which have been recorded across the African continent do not seem to have translated into economic and social gains for its 1.2 billion citizens, the AU adopted a new development framework dubbed \"Agenda 2063\". The framework calls on African leaders to rediscover the `Pan African' spirit and to create the `Africa Africans want'. In practice this means a new focus and engagement with the African Diaspora, tapping into their strong track-record in economic development. As this book shows however, there remain deep differences over the meaning, timing and sequencing of pan-African integration. Indeed, different member states have different understandings of the role of the African Union itself. This essential handbook, from one of the leading research institutions on the continent, seeks to uncover what some of those understandings are and why the unification project has remained so elusive.

The democratization process which bolstered a culture of periodic elections has also fostered election-related violent conflicts. As democratic transitions gained currency in the new millennium, orderly transitions through the ballot boxes began replacing military coups but deaths and destructions came in the wake of elections in many countries. Inspired by decades-long pro-democracy movements across Africa that culminated in the Arab Spring of 2010-2011, and motivated by the desire to find long-term solutions to election-related violent conflicts in the continent, this book explores the terrain of democratization, elections, and conflict management. It raises and answers many questions, such as: What are the root causes of election-related conflicts? How free, fair, and credible are elections in many African countries? What institutional mechanisms are available for ballot and voter security and for mandate protection? What has been the role of civil society organizations in conflict prevention and management? What are the responsibilities of the international community, especially regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU), in conflict resolution? What indigenous mechanisms for conflict management have been identified that may be proactively engaged?

This work is an introduction to the origins, law and institutions of the African Union (AU). It examines the evolution, structures, legal standards and operational activities of this Pan-African organization, which replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) 10 years ago.Although the AU came into being in 2001, so far there is no comprehensive work which addresses the institution, its organs and structures, the scope of its operations, its legal framework and the normative standards underpinning its objectives and functions or those underlying the conventions, charters and protocols it has enacted or inherited from its predecessor, the OAU. It is the aim of this work to fill that void. It has been conceived as a manual, and not as a scholarly treatise, so as to serve as a basic introduction to the institutional and legal framework of the AU and its affiliated organizations. It is meant to offer a concise and clear picture of the nature and workings of a continental institution aimed not only at promoting peace and unity in Africa but also at ensuring human security, development, human rights protection and good governance for the peoples of Africa.

Outstanding Academic Title for 2007, Choice Magazine This volume studies elections as a core institution of liberal democracy in the context of newly democratizing countries. Political scientist Staffan I. Lindberg gathers data from every nationally contested election in Africa from 1989 to 2003, covering 232 elections in 44 countries. He argues that democratizing nations learn to become democratic through repeated democratic behavior, even if their elections are often flawed. Refuting a number of established hypotheses, Lindberg finds no general negative trend in either the frequency or the quality of African elections. Rather, elections in Africa, based on his findings, are more than just the goal of a transition toward democracy or merely a formal procedure. The inception of multiparty elections usually initiates liberalization, and repeated electoral activities create incentives for political actors, fostering the expansion and deepening of democratic values. In addition to improving the democratic qualities of political regimes, a sequence of elections tends to expand and solidify de facto civil liberties in society. Drawing on a wealth of data, Lindberg makes the case that repetitive elections are an important causal factor in the development of democracy. He thus extends Rustow's (1970) theory that democratic behavior produces democratic values.

Poverty in Africa is largely the outcome of slow growth. With the region hosting 10 percent of the world's population but a staggering 30 percent of the world's poor, the challenges it faces are enormous but NOT insurmountable. The message of this book is clear - poverty-eradicating development in Africa is possible. In fact, there are indications that Africa is at a turning point, and there is growing momentum among front-runner economies in the region toward higher and sustained growth. This study challenges African countries and their development partners to consolidate and continue this momentum and to exploit the advantages of the continent as a latecomer, particularly in innovation and in drawing lessons from successful export-led growth experiences in Asia and Latin America. \"Challenges of African Growth\" identifies opportunities, constraints, and strategic choices that African countries face in their quest for achieving the growth necessary for poverty alleviation. More important, the study provides a broad menu of stategic options for ensuring not only that countries embark on a growth path, but also that the growth is shared and sustainable. The critical areas for action rest on four pillars: the investment climate; infrastructure; innovation for increasing productivity and competitiveness; and institutional capacity.

“In 2013 almost half of Africa’s top aid recipients were ruled by authoritarian regimes. While the West may claim to promote democracy and human rights, in practice major bilateral and international donors, such as USAID, DFID, the World Bank and the European Commission, have seen their aid policies become ever more entangled with the survival of their authoritarian protégés. Local citizens thus find themselves at the receiving end of a compromise between aid agencies and government elites, in which development policies are shaped in the interests of maintaining the status quo. Aid and Authoritarianism in Africa sheds light on the political intricacies and moral dilemmas raised by the relationship between foreign aid and autocratic rule in Africa. Through contributions by leading experts exploring the revival of authoritarian development politics in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Mozambique and Angola, the book exposes shifting donor interests and rhetoric as well as the impact of foreign aid on military assistance, rural development, electoral processes and domestic politics. In the process, it raises an urgent and too often neglected question: to what extent are foreign aid programmes actually perpetuating authoritarian rule?”

Explores the ways in which African countries have experienced the neoliberal project, highlighting how this project has gone beyond economic liberalisation and towards a bolder social transformation. This book suggests that neoliberal 'progress' in Africa is notably limited in spite of the resources behind it and the lack of alternatives to it.