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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Beyond the Long Arm of the Law: The Pattern and Consequences of Disengagement in Africa
Author:Baker, BruceISNI
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.
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