Authoritarian Africa
Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2019
Total Pages: 144
ISBN-13: 9780190279653
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"A higher education history textbook on the history of authoritarianism in Africa"--
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Aid and Authoritarianism in Africa
Author: Tobias Hagmann
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Published: 2016-03-15
Total Pages: 245
ISBN-13: 1783606312
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 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?
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa
Author: Rachel Beatty Riedl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014-02-13
Total Pages: 287
ISBN-13: 1139916904
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy have seemingly similar African countries developed very different forms of democratic party systems? Despite virtually ubiquitous conditions that are assumed to be challenging to democracy - low levels of economic development, high ethnic heterogeneity, and weak state capacity - nearly two dozen African countries have maintained democratic competition since the early 1990s. Yet the forms of party system competition vary greatly: from highly stable, nationally organized, well-institutionalized party systems to incredibly volatile, particularistic parties in systems with low institutionalization. To explain their divergent development, Rachel Beatty Riedl points to earlier authoritarian strategies to consolidate support and maintain power. The initial stages of democratic opening provide an opportunity for authoritarian incumbents to attempt to shape the rules of the new multiparty system in their own interests, but their power to do so depends on the extent of local support built up over time.
The New Authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Stephen J. King
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2009-10-28
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 0253004004
DOWNLOAD EBOOKStephen J. King considers the reasons that international and domestic efforts toward democratization have failed to take hold in the Arab world. Focusing on Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and Algeria, he suggests that a complex set of variables characterizes authoritarian rule and helps to explain both its dynamism and its persistence. King addresses, but moves beyond, how religion and the strongly patriarchal culture influence state structure, policy configuration, ruling coalitions, and legitimization and privatization strategies. He shows how the transformation of authoritarianism has taken place amid shifting social relations and political institutions and how these changes have affected the lives of millions. Ultimately, King's forward-thinking analysis offers a way to enhance the prospects for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Reconstructing the Authoritarian State in Africa
Author: George Kieh, Jr.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-01
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 1135007594
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis work seeks to examine the nature and dynamics of authoritarianism in Africa and to suggest ways in which the states covered in the book can be democratically reconstituted. In 1990, a wave of euphoria greeted the "third wave of democratization" that swept across the African Continent. The repression-wearied subalterns were hopeful that the "third wave" would have set into motion the process of democratically reconstituting the authoritarian state on the continent. More than two decades thereafter, although some progress has been made, by and large, the authoritarian state remains the dominant construct in the region. Even in some of the countries in which democratic transitions have taken place, the process of democratic consolidation remains an elusive quest as these states are sandwiched between authoritarianism and democracy. Against this background, the purpose of this book is to examine the travails of the authoritarian state in Africa, including the Herculean task to democratically reconstruct it. In order to do this, six of Africa’s perennial authoritarian states—Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Liberia, Rwanda and Uganda—are used as the case studies. The book has two major objectives. First, the various chapters probe the nature and dynamics of authoritarianism in Africa. Second, the chapters suggest ways in which the various authoritarian states covered in the book can be democratically reconstituted.
Revolution and Authoritarianism in North Africa
Author: Frédéric Volpi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 242
ISBN-13: 0190642920
DOWNLOAD EBOOKInvestigates how regimes in the Maghreb have kept dissent at bay, and the means by which their authority has been challenged
Protest and Mass Mobilization
Author: Merouan Mekouar
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-03-02
Total Pages: 156
ISBN-13: 131707422X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy and how do some acts of protest trigger mass mobilization while others do not? Using the cases of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Mekouar argues that successful mass mobilization is the result of a surprise factor, whose impact and exceptionality is amplified by the presence of influential political agents during the early phase of protest, as well as by regime violence and unusual media coverage. Together this study argues that these factors create a perception of exceptionality, which breaks the locally available cognitive heuristic originally in favor of the regime, and thus creates the necessary conditions for mobilization to occur. This book provides a unique dialectical picture of mobilization in North Africa by focusing both on the perspective of those who mobilized against their local regimes and members of the security forces who were responsible for stopping them. Moreover, it offers a first-hand account of the tumultuous days preceding authoritarian collapse and explains the mechanisms through which political change occurs.
Competitive Authoritarianism
Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-08-16
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 1139491482
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBased on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
New Authoritarian Practices in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Ozgun Topak
Publisher: EUP
Published: 2024-02-14
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781474489416
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExamines new authoritarian practices and state control in MENA countries to target and neutralise dissidents
Democracy in Africa
Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-05-12
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 1316239489
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis 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.
