Publisher Description

Any attempt to address the ever-present problem of instability in Africa gives rise to questions regarding legitimate governance. Without future thinking and action on the legitimacy of governance in Africa and how to secure it, past mistakes will go unheeded rather than informing forward movement. Surprisingly, no existing work has comprehensively addressed this critical issue. Legitimate Governance in Africa provides this needed coverage for the first time, examining such key components in the struggle for legitimate governance as the role of the international community in addressing the problem, the particular role women can play and ways in which women can improve their involvement in the whole enterprise of governance, and the roles of non-governmental organizations and civil society. In this diverse collection of essays, a wide range of expert legal contributors, all familiar with the status of the struggle for legitimate governance in a specific institution or particular African state, brings unique perspectives to the scholarly investigation of legitimate governance in Africa. The individual authors have thought deeply about the complexities and subtleties of conducting and evaluating the business of African state governance, considering both the practical sustainability of potential approaches and theoretical problems and issues. The probing, high-quality essays facilitate a real understanding of the obstacles to progress in the struggle for legitimate governance. Through their depth and diversity of views, every one of the papers included in this collection enriches the pool of knowledge on this important subject.

This edited volume examines asymmetric conflict dynamics through the politics of recognition vis-à-vis armed non-state actors. It explores a diverse range of case studies and considers the risks and opportunities that (non-)recognition may involve for transforming armed conflicts.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

Publisher Description

"This is an exceptionally interesting and well researched book on a topic of enormous importance. It brings careful ethnographic fieldwork to bear on the new 'culture of rights' that has developed in democratized post-colonial African states such as Malawi, and by doing so develops a powerful and consequential critique."--James Ferguson, Stanford University "In this exceptionally rich and thought-provoking study of human rights fundamentalism in Malawi, Harri Englund makes an original contribution to debates on democracy, freedom, civil society, and poverty in Africa. His vivid ethnographic prose brings to life Malawian human rights activists, their expatriate benefactors as well as the urban and rural poor. This is a major contribution on a major topic."--Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

What Politics? Youth and Political Engagement in Africa examines the diverse experiences of being young in today’s Africa. It offers new perspectives to the roles and positions young people take to change their life conditions both within and beyond the formal political structures and institutions. The contributors represent several social science disciplines, and provide well-grounded qualitative analyses of young people’s everyday engagements by critically examining dominant discourses of youth, politics and ideology. Despite focusing on Africa, the book is a collective effort to better understand what it is like to be young today, and what the making of tomorrow’s yesterday means for them in personal and political terms. Contributors are: Ehaab Abdou, Abebaw Yirga Adamu, Henni Alava, Päivi Armila, Randi Rønning Balsvik, Jesper Bjarnesen, Þóra Björnsdóttir, Jónína Einarsdóttir, Tilo Grätz, Nanna Jordt Jørgensen, Marko Kananen, Sofia Laine, Naydene de Lange, Afifa Ltifi, Ivo Mhike, Claudia Mitchell, Relebohile Moletsane, Danai S. Mupotsa, Elina Oinas, Henri Onodera, Eija Ranta, Mounir Saidani, Mariko Sato, Loubna H. Skalli, Tiina Sotkasiira, Abdoulaye Sounaye, Leena Suurpää, and Mulumebet Zenebe. What Politics? Youth and Political Engagement in Africa is now available in paperback for individual customers.