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Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa – Father, Family, Food

Autor Michael G. Schatzberg
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 12 noi 2001
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003Michael G. Schatzberg explores the cultural underpinnings of political legitimacy. He argues that all societies have a culturally-rooted template against which people come to understand the political legitimacy, or "thinkability," of institutions, ideas, policies, and procedures.
In this innovative work, Michael G. Schatzberg reads metaphors found in the popular press as an indicator of how Africans come to understand political legitimacy, political culture, and political philosophy. Examining daily newspapers, popular literature, and political and church documents from across middle Africa-from Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria to Cameroon, Congo/Zaire, Kenya, and Tanzania-Schatzberg finds widespread and deeply ingrained views of government and its relationship to its citizenry as parts of an idealised and extended family. By exploring the role of the father-chief as head of the family, Schatzberg considers how political power is distributed in Africa, or who "eats" first. He addresses themes such as the role of the church, sorcery, soccer, and women within the paternalistic family-state; how punishments or rewards are meted out; and the limits of political corruption. Schatzberg's careful observations and sensitive interpretations uncover the moral and social factors that shape the African political universe. He shows how African understandings of politics and political power may have hampered the growth of Western-style democracy in Africa. Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa looks closely at elements of African moral and political thought that are compatible with democratic notions of government and assesses whether democracy might flourish if it were to be established on African terms.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780253214829
ISBN-10: 0253214823
Pagini: 312
Dimensiuni: 156 x 234 x 19 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: Wiley

Cuprins

Preliminary Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
1. Metaphor and Matrix
Methods
Paternal and Familial Metaphors
The Moral Matrix of Legitimate Governance
Subjacency, Legitimacy, and the "Unthinkable"
2. Representations of Power
Power Defined
Local Faces of Power
Conclusion
3. Parameters of The Political
The Elision of Church and State
The Elision of State and Civil Society
Conclusion
4. Alternative Causalities
The Banality of Sorcery
The Perils of Explanation in Congo/Zaïre
Other Visions
5. Matrix I-The Father-Chief: Rights and Responsibilities
Nurture and Nourishment
Punishment and Pardon
Corruption and Its Limits
6. Matrix II-Gender and Generation: Women, the Paternal Order, and the Alternation of Power
Women and the Paternal Order
Women as Counselors
Evolving Norms
Generational Rotation
7. Democracy and the Logic of Legitimacy
Epistemological Issues
The Matrix Revisited
Legitimacy, Democracy, and "Democratization"
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Recenzii

" . . . a well-researched and clearly written book that provides strong evidence of the crucial importance of the cultural context to the conduct of politics in Africa. This volume should be read carefully by all those who are fruitlessly looking for neat and simple solutions to the present political crisis on the continent."--International Affairs, July 2002

Notă biografică


Descriere

Explores the cultural underpinnings of political legitimacy in eight African countries