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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Reflections on Development Theory and Political Practice in Africa
Author:Khadiagala, Gilbert M.ISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:Current Bibliography on African Affairs
Volume:22
Issue:4
Pages:343-370
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:sociology
development
politics
Bibliography/Research
Politics and Government
Development and Technology
Abstract:The main point of departure of this survey of the relationship between development theory and related postulations on African politics over the last three decades is that past debates on democracy in Africa have always been hampered by a peculiar alliance between scholarship, which extols Africa's ostensible uniqueness, and the authoritarian African regimes that sought to justify their hold on power. The undercurrents of this relationship are evident in the theoretical premises and policy prescriptions explicitly or implicitly recommending authoritarian solutions to the problem of governance that have formed a significant feature of mainstream development and comparative politics literature, exemplified amongst others by 1960s modernization theory premised on political order and stability; radical Marxist and neo-Marxist scholarship within the dependency school; the early 1980s movement to 'bring the State back' into comparative political analysis, with its focus on the weak and underdeveloped nature of the African State, variously premised on the economy of affection, the absence of a hegemonic ruling class, or pathological patrimonialism, its glorification of the informal sector and its analysis of the nature of State-society relations. At present, the discourse takes two forms: the renaissance of theoretical premises of political culture, viz. cross-cultural differences affect political participation, and the blatant political defence of authoritarianism through the thesis of African exclusivity. However the unanimity that characterized past debates is missing. Bibliogr.
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