Description
Book SynopsisAfrican Governance, Security, and Development explores the political economy of development in Africa. The contributors examine the impact and implications of the democratization process in Africa with particular focus on issues of economic, social, and institutional development. Through a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines, contributors analyze topics such as the impact of democratization on governance and institutional development, foreign aid and foreign direct investment, terrorism in Africa, identity politics, and the politics of oil extraction. African Governance, Security, and Development features the voices of scholars from institutions of higher learning in Africa and showcases case studies from the continent, bringing much-needed African and Africanist perspectives to current discussions about African political development and economy.
Trade ReviewAfrican Governance, Security, and Development is a comprehensive and thoughtful collection of timely essays written to reveal enduring patterns in African political and socio-economic life. The text goes beyond an explanation of challenges of democratic reforms, consolidation, security, gender inequalities, and unfinished development policy agendas in Africa and explores the complex interactions of these variables as they manifest in different African countries. The volume elegantly interweaves several themes in the development discourse in a way that is useful to students and practitioners of African governance.
-- Eric E. Otenyo, Northern Arizona University
Following the democratic wave that swept across Africa in the 1990s, few studies have dedicated their analysis to understanding whether the resulting political transition has proved sustainable. This excellent volume fills this lacuna. By drawing from experiences of several African countries, contributors to the volume masterfully complicate our understanding of democratic transition in Africa, depicting it as a variable against which progress can be understood or measured. They succeed at arguing that outcomes of democratic practice or political transition in Africa have varied from state to state. This variation marks the book’s value, as it offers the contributors an opportunity to determine outcomes of political change on the continent by focusing on various germane topics. These range from constitutional practice, identity, development, ethnicity, education, parliamentarism, imagination, new oil economies, security, and regional integration. This timely book is critical to researchers and students of African studies seeking to understand political, social, and economic trends in modern Africa against the backdrop of state and regional politics.
-- Martin S. Shanguhyia, Syracuse University
An edifying interdisciplinary inquiry into social, ideological, and political micro-national, macro-national and global identities and institutions and the theory and practice of democracies.
-- Besi Muhonja, James Madison University
This book captures African politics in its complexity and diversity. It is a “one-stop-shop,” and a valuable resource for students, academics, and practitioners who wish to navigate Africa’s contemporary political, economic, socio-cultural, and security landscape. It is a must-read!
-- Augustine E. Ayuk, Clayton State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Democracy, Governance, and Development
Wanjala S. Nasong’o
Part I: The Challenge of Democratic Consolidation
Chapter 1: Different Paths, Similar Destination: The Unending and Un-consolidating Democratic Transition in Kenya and Uganda
Joshua M. Kivuva
Chapter 2: The Legislature and Third Term Ambition in African Democracy
Ibrahim Yusuf and Stanley O. Ehiane
Chapter 3: Assessing the Impact of Democratization: The Case of Kenya’s Supreme Court
John Mwangi Githigaro
Chapter 4: Democracy and Education in African Schools: Contradictions between Theory and Practice in Kenya
Suleiman Kairu Mwangi
Chapter 5: Politics of Identity and Democratization in Postcolonial Africa: Kenyan Experience
Vundi Nason
Part II: Gender, Ethnicity, and Civic Engagement
Chapter 6: Gender and Political Governance in Africa: Revisiting Past and Contemporary Dimensions
Fatuma Guyo
Chapter 7: Transforming the ‘Bearded’ Parliament in Africa through Gender Mainstreaming: The Case of the Kenyan National Parliament
Vundi Nason
Chapter 8: The Curse of the Last Name in Being and Becoming Kenyan
Ken Walibora Waliaula
Chapter 9: Ethnicity or Clientelism? Explaining Cote d’Ivoire’s Election Crisis
Patrick Effah
Chapter 10: The Civic Culture and Post-Colonial Political Imagination in Cabo Verde
Paulino Do Canto
Part III: Governance, Security, and Development
Chapter 11: Debt and Economic Development in Kenya
John Musalia
Chapter 12: Oil Politics, Institutional Framework, and Inclusive Development in Uganda
Julius Niringiyimana
Chapter 13: The Cost of Terrorism in Africa: The Case of the Boko Haram Insurgents in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin
George C. Mbara, Stanley O. Ehiane, and Nirmala Gopal
Chapter 14: Political Discourses and Regional (Dis) Integration: Comparing Narratives from the Global South and Global North
Francis Onditi
