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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Introduction: Traditional Authority and Democratization in Africa
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Traditional Authorities and Decentralized Governance
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Traditional Authorities and State and Party Politics
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
"State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa addresses one of the central challenges of contemporary democracy in Africa with seriousness and sophistication. Any simplistic notions that traditional leaders provide a panacea for democratic deficits are rendered invalid through rich empirical investigations, revealing the connections between the recognition of traditional authorities and global discourses and strategies of governance. Empirically rich and theoretically grounded, this excellent collection is a crucial reminder that the democratic potential of traditional structures cannot be taken for granted, but requires critical scrutiny." - Rita Abrahamsen, Professor of Postcolonial Studies, University of Wales, United Kingdom
"Buur s and Kyed s work offers a coherent and insightful analysis of all the complexities in the articulation of traditional chieftaincy and the state in Africa in the 1990 s. This book supersedes simplistic interpretations of the return of chieftaincy as being good or bad for democratisation. It shows that both local state and chiefs are re-shaping themselves in this articulation. Moreover, the book shows how this is further complicated by the intervention of neo-liberal donors with their novel and somewhat surprising love of tradition. A rich empirical collection with forceful analytic coherence." - Peter Geschiere, Professor of African anthropology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
"The book is valuablein its contribution to understanding post-1900 democratic development in Africa." - Joleen Steyn-Kotze, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
HELENE MARIA KYED is a PhD candidate at Roskilde University and the Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark, with an MA honors in Social Anthropology from Aarhus University. Her master's thesis dealt with decentralization and local politics in Zimbabwe. At the moment, she is completing her PhDthesis on State Formalization of Traditional Authority: State Formation, Decentralization and Changing Forms of Authority in Mozambique, based on fourteen months of fieldwork in Manica Province. She has co-edited an anthology, State Recognition of Local Authorities and Public Participation: Experiences, Obstacles and Possibilities in Mozambique, to be published in 2007. She has published articles in Development and Change and the Journal of Southern African Studies, as well as peer-reviewed chapters in The Security-Development Nexus and Global Vigilantes on the topics of traditional authority and local forms of justice enforcement and policing.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa
Book Subtitle: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities?
Editors: Lars Buur, Helene Maria Kyed
Series Title: Governance, Security and Development
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609716
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-60033-1Published: 20 December 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-36980-5Published: 08 November 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-60971-6Published: 26 November 2007
Series ISSN: 2945-7815
Series E-ISSN: 2945-7823
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 241
Topics: African Politics, Development Policy, Political History, Democracy, Popular Science in Education, Political Science