Twilight Institutions – Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa: Development and Change Special Issues

This volume approaches public authority 'from below', exploring a variety of concrete encounters between forms of public authority and the more or less mundane practices of ordinary people. The expertly written essays in this collection reflect upon the failure of government institutions to maintain control; while there is no shortage of institutions attempting to exercise authority, none is continuously successful. Fading in and out of power, these institutions operate between public and private in the twilight between state and society