Coups, Rivals, and the Modern State

Coups, Rivals, and the Modern State

Author: Beth S. Rabinowitz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1108359434

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

State development in Africa is risky, even life-threatening. Heads of state must weigh the advantage of promoting political and economic development against the risk of fortifying dangerous political rivals. This book takes a novel approach to the study of neopatrimonial rule by placing security concerns at the center of state-building. Using quantitative evidence from 44 African countries and in-depth case studies of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Rabinowitz demonstrates that the insecurities of the African state make strategically aligning with rural leaders critical to political success. Leaders who cultivate the goodwill of the countryside are better able to endure sporadic urban unrest, subdue political challengers, minimize ethnic and regional discord, and prevent a military uprising. Such regimes are more likely to build infrastructure needed for economic and political development. In so doing, Rabinowitz upends the long-held assumption that African leaders must cater to urban constituents to secure their rule.


Spiders of the Market, Enhanced Ebook

Spiders of the Market, Enhanced Ebook

Author: David Afriyie Donkor

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2016-07-11

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0253026040

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Ghanaian trickster-spider, Ananse, is a deceptive figure full of comic delight who blurs the lines of class, politics, and morality. David Afriyie Donkor identifies social performance as a way to understand trickster behavior within the shifting process of political legitimization in Ghana, revealing stories that exploit the social ideologies of economic neoliberalism and political democratization. At the level of policy, neither ideology was completely successful, but Donkor shows how the Ghanaian government was crafty in selling the ideas to the people, adapting trickster-rooted performance techniques to reinterpret citizenship and the common good. Trickster performers rebelled against this takeover of their art and sought new ways to out trick the tricksters.


Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana

Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana

Author: Paul Nugent

Publisher: Burns & Oates

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

During the 1980s Ghanaian politics went through remarkable transformations - from revolution, through adoption of a draconian economic reform programme, to the eventual return to democratic government in 1992. This study covers the entire sequence of events, situating them in the broader historical context and offering a sustained explanation of what occurred. Since the eighteenth century, a central theme dominating Ghanaian politics and society has been the relationship between wealth and virtue, and Dr Nugent offers a key explanation of the way in which this theme is still predominant today.