[PDF] Decentralization And Constitutionalism In Africa eBook

Author : Charles M. Fombad
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 673 pages
File Size : 37,17 MB
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : Law
ISBN : 0192585037

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This collection of essays assesses the efforts of African governments to constitutionalise decentralisation, be it in the form of federalism, local government or traditional authorities. Since the end of the Cold War jurisdictions across Africa have witnessed an ostensible return to multi-party democracy within the paradigm of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Linked to the democratisation process, many countries took steps to decentralize power by departing from the heavily centralized systems inherited from colonial regimes. The centralization of power, typically characterized by the personalization and concentration of power in the hands of leaders and privileged elites in capital cities, mostly resulted in repressive regimes and fragile states. As decentralisation is a response to these challenges, this volume analyses the dynamic relationship between the efforts to implement decentralization and presence or absence of constitutionalism. This volume examines a variety of forms and degrees of decentralization found across Africa. It advances a new understanding of trends and patterns and facilitates the exchange of ideas among African governments and scholars about the critical role that decentralisation may play in democratization of and constitutionalism in Africa.

Author : Jan Erk
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 18,37 MB
Release : 2018-12-07
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1351718819

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The 1990s were marked by democratic reforms throughout Africa, which went in tandem with decentralization reforms. The chapters of the volume all highlight the gradual changes that have taken place since. Long-term structural uncodified factors – be it societal, economic, geographic, demographic – seem to have interacted with the constitutional clauses introduced during the reforms. Some chapters look at how decentralization slowly gave way to recentralization because none of the new subnational entities were politically and economically strong enough to balance off the center; some look at how inherent deficiencies in infrastructure and personnel at the subnational level brought the central government back in; some look at how different subnational units ended up working differently due to differences in demographic and social factors; some look at how uncodified factors came to determine how national politics functioned; some look at how decentralization created new conflicts between ethnic groups competing for the control of the new entities; some look at how decentralization blew new life into traditional authorities. This book was original published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.

Author : A. Carl LeVan
Publisher : Springer
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 31,14 MB
Release : 2016-02-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1137523344

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Africa is changing and it is easy to overlook how decentralization, democratization, and new forms of illiberalism have transformed federalism, political parties, and local politics. Chapters on Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa help fill an important gap in comparative institutional research about state and local politics in Africa.

Author : Dele Olowu
Publisher : Lynne Rienner Publishers
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 26,85 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781588261731

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An exploration of why some decentralization reforms have led to viable systems of local governance in Africa, while others have failed. It outlines the key issues involved, provides historical context, and identifies the factors that have encouraged or discouraged success.

Author : Bernard Dafflon
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 39,35 MB
Release : 2012-12-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0821396145

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For two decades now, experiences in decentralization and federalization have been in progress in many countries, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. How can these processes be understood and improved? Focusing on four Sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal), this volume applies an original approach to address such questions.

Author : James Wunsch
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 11,48 MB
Release : 2019-07-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1000301311

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This book is an outcome of the workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, held in Indiana, during the 1985/86. It seeks to explains why the centralized African state has failed and discusses the breakdown of social processes indirectly caused by the policies of the centralized state.

Author : Lovise Aalen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 11,68 MB
Release : 2017-10-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1315472392

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Can autocrats establish representative subnational governments? And which strategies of manipulation are available if they would like to reduce the uncertainty caused by introducing political decentralisation? In the wake of local government reforms, several states across the world have introduced legislation that provides for subnational elections. This does not mean that representative subnational governments in these countries are all of a certain standard. Political decentralisation should not be confused with democratisation, as the process is likely to be manipulated in ways that do not produce meaningful avenues for political participation and contestation locally. Using examples from Africa, Lovise Aalen and Ragnhild L. Muriaas propose five requirements for representative subnational governments and four strategies that national governments might use to manipulate the outcome of political decentralisation. The case studies of Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda illustrate why autocrats sometimes are more open to competition at the subnational level than democrats. Manipulating Political Decentralisation provides a new conceptual tool to assess representative subnational governments' quality, aiding us in building theories on the consequences of political decentralisation on democratisation.

Author : Jan Erk
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 33,89 MB
Release : 2018-12-07
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1351259504

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Decentralization reforms introduced to Africa in the 1990s have not always delivered the intended long-term outcomes. This is a collection on the consequences of these reforms two decades on. In addition to general and comparative overviews, the book contains case studies on Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ethiopia, and Uganda. The common theme across the chapters is that the reforms seem to have engendered political consequences beyond decentralization itself – mostly through interaction with the broader historical, political, social, and economic context. The book thus speaks both to the scholarly literature (on decentralization, democratization, and development) and to the community of development practitioners. Most of the literature on decentralization and development emphasizes questions of institutional design and policy, but here the harder-to-pin-down political patterns marking the workings of decentralization are the main focus of analysis. The debates on development, through the case studies, are connected to the scholarly literatures on comparative federalism, comparative decentralization, and local democracy. The main conclusion that emerges from the studies in the book is that no magic formula that can turn countries into peaceful, stable, and prosperous democracies overnight exists. Furthermore, there are risks involved in importing formal institutions without regard to the local historical, political, social, and economic context. The chapters of this book were originally published as a special issue in Regional and Federal Studies.

Author : Michael Ferendinos
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 20 pages
File Size : 11,60 MB
Release : 2009-02-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3640270126

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: B, Stellenbosch Universitiy, course: Southern African Political Economy, language: English, abstract: Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako (2002) point out that it is no secret that governance on the African continent has been under the spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons. Their have been improvements, however, with a shifting from autocracy to democracy in many African states; this has resulted in a move to better or good governance due to this democratic change. Good governance is a complex issue and there is no distinction between good, democratic and participatory governance. Furthermore, there has been little consensus pertaining to the criteria that distinguishes between good, bad, or better governance. This paper will not delve into the conceptualisation of good governance due to length restrictions. The bulk of the paper will provide a detailed analysis of decentralisation, as well as looking at systems of government and models of local government. That will be followed by an overview of decentralisation on the African continent, with specific reference to its impact on the East African state of Kenya. The influence of decentralisation has produced mixed reactions, depending on who it effects; the adequate conceptualisation and method of implementation of the term has also been disputed. This paper holds the position that decentralisation has had a positive effect on the continent as a whole as well as on Kenya. [...]

Author : Sylvain H. Boko
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 50,14 MB
Release : 2002-06-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781402071188

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The milieu that spawned decentralization in Africa was a mixture of the legacy of colonialism, the post-independence internal political in-fighting, and the international economic turmoil of the late 1970s and the 1980s that left most of the African economies in disarray and internationally marginalized. Boko (Wake Forest U.) examines decentralization, especially fiscal decentralization, in a sample of four West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana. He considers the general structures, empirical evidence, and macroeconomic impacts. He also offers conclusions and recommendations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR