The African State in Transition [Hardcover]

In the first twenty-five years of African independence the behaviour of the African state elites has not been, with a few notable exceptions, conducive to self-sustained development. What are the reasons for this sorry state of affairs? What can be done to reverse that unfortunate trend? These are the two overarching questions with which this book attempts to grapple.Notes on the Contributors - Introduction; Z.Ergas - PART 1 THE THEORY - Reflections on State Centrism as Ideology in Africa; H.Glickman - Class, Political Domination and the African State; N.Kasfir - The Managerial State in Africa: A Conflict Coalition Perspective; O.Marenin - The State as Lame Leviathan: The Patrimonial Adminstrative State in Africa; T.Callaghy - Hegemony and State Softness in Africa: Some Variations in Elite Responses; D.Rothchild - The Dynamics of Factionalism in Contemporary Africa; R.Lemarchand - PART 2 THE PRACTICE - The Crisis of the Socialist State in Africa; M.Ottaway - The Military and the State in Africa: Problems of Political Transition; C.Welch - The Foreign Exchange Imperative, Policy Reform and the African State; C.Lancaster - The Politics of Agricultural Pricing in Sub-Saharan Africa; R.Bates - Basic Human Needs and the African State; R.Curry Jr - Directions for Further Research: Diarchy, Conditionality, Aid and Development in Africa - Index