Electoral Politics and Africa's Urban Transition
Title | Electoral Politics and Africa's Urban Transition PDF eBook |
Author | Noah L. Nathan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 365 |
Release | 2019-02-28 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1108474950 |
Explores the political impacts of ethnic diversity and the growth of the middle class in urban Africa.
Electoral Politics in Africa since 1990
Title | Electoral Politics in Africa since 1990 PDF eBook |
Author | Jaimie Bleck |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 345 |
Release | 2018-11-29 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1107162084 |
First comprehensive analysis of electoral politics in Sub-Saharan Africa since the democratic transitions of the early 1990s.
The Scarce State
Title | The Scarce State PDF eBook |
Author | Noah L. Nathan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 375 |
Release | 2023-01-31 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 100926110X |
States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact. Isolated state actions in regions where the state is otherwise scarce can have outsize, long-lasting effects on society. The Scarce State reframes our understanding of the political economy of hinterlands through a multi-method study of Northern Ghana alongside shadow cases from other world regions. Drawing on a historical natural experiment, the book shows how the contemporary economic and political elite emerged in Ghana's hinterland, linking interventions by an ostensibly weak state to new socio-economic inequality and grassroots efforts to reimagine traditional institutions. The book demonstrates how these state-generated societal changes reshaped access to political power, producing dynastic politics, clientelism, and violence. The Scarce State challenges common claims about state-building and state weakness, provides new evidence on the historical origins of inequality, and reconsiders the mechanisms linking historical institutions to contemporary politics.
Electoral Politics and Africa's Urban Transition
Title | Electoral Politics and Africa's Urban Transition PDF eBook |
Author | Noah L. Nathan |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 365 |
Release | 2019-02-28 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1108693652 |
Two aspects of contemporary urban life in Africa are often described as sources of political change: the emergence of a large urban middle class and high levels of ethnic diversity and inter-ethnic social contact. Many expected that these factors would help spark a transition away from ethnic competition and clientelism toward more programmatic elections. Focusing on urban Ghana, this book shows that the growing middle class and high levels of ethnic diversity are not having the anticipated political effects. Instead, urban Ghana is stuck in a trap: clientelism and ethnic voting persist in many urban neighborhoods despite changes to the socio-economic characteristics and policy preferences of voters. Through a unique examination of intra-urban variation in patterns of electoral competition, Nathan explains why this trap exists, demonstrates its effects on political behavior, and explores how new democracies like Ghana can move past it.
Democracy in Ghana
Title | Democracy in Ghana PDF eBook |
Author | Jeffrey W. Paller |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 333 |
Release | 2019-03-07 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1316513300 |
A detailed account of politics in Ghana's urban neighborhoods, providing a new way to understand African democracy and development.
Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies
Title | Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies PDF eBook |
Author | Danielle Resnick |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 319 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1107036801 |
By combining the perspectives of political elites with those of voters, this book provides a unique analysis of the dynamics of the party-voter relationship in Africa.
Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics
Title | Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics PDF eBook |
Author | Chandan Deuskar |
Publisher | University of Pennsylvania Press |
Total Pages | 249 |
Release | 2022-08-30 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1512823104 |
In many rapidly urbanizing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, local politics undermines the effectiveness of urban planning. Politicians have incentives to ignore formal urban plans and sideline planners, and instead provide urban land and services through informal channels in order to cultivate political constituencies (a form of what political scientists refer to as “clientelism”). This results in inequitable and environmentally damaging patterns of urban growth in some of the largest and most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world. The technocratic planning solutions often advocated by governments and international development organizations are not enough. To overcome this problem, urban planners must understand and adapt to the complex politics of urban informality. In this book, Chandan Deuskar explores how politicians in developing democracies provide urban land and services to the urban poor in exchange for their political support, demonstrates how this impacts urban growth, and suggests innovative and practical ways in which urban planners can try to be more effective in this challenging political context. He draws on literature from multiple disciplines (urban planning, political science, sociology, anthropology, and others), statistical analysis of global data on urbanization, and an in-depth case study of urban Ghana. Urban planners and international development experts working in the Global South, as well as researchers, educators, and students of global urbanization will find Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics informative and thought-provoking.