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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Beyond the Long Arm of the Law: The Pattern and Consequences of Disengagement in Africa |
Author: | Baker, Bruce |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (ISSN 0306-3631) |
Volume: | 35 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | November |
Pages: | 53-74 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | political systems political action Law, Human Rights and Violence nationalism Politics and Government Inter-African Relations |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14662049708447752 |
Abstract: | The breadth, history and ambiguities of disengagement in sub-Saharan Africa are best accommodated within a social power perspective, where disengagement is conceived of in terms of escape from the unacceptable dominance of individual rulers and authoritarian systems. Those disengaging will seek to ignore, evade, mitigate or ward off (but not change or destroy) what ceases to have legitimacy in their eyes. The phenomena within its scope include political migration, discontinuance in formal and informal politics, secessionism, cultural withdrawal such as localized autonomy and self-sufficient communities, and economic activity that wilfully avoids the law. The author examines sociopolitical data from sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of disengagement, considering the relationship between disengagement and other responses to domination, the scope and scale of disengagement, strategies of disengagement, the role of geographical and social factors in disengagement, and the short-term consequences for political authority, for society, and for democratization. Notes, ref. |