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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Two Leadership Styles and Patterns of Political Liberalization
Author:Widner, JenniferISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:African Studies Review
Volume:37
Issue:1
Period:April
Pages:151-174
Language:English
Geographic terms:Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire
Kenya
Subjects:leadership
democracy
political change
heads of State
Politics and Government
About persons:Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993)ISNI
Daniel Toroitich arap Moi (1924-2020)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/525117
Abstract:This essay identifies the sources of difference in leadership style during a period of political reform. It probes the interrelationship between institutions and ideas in styles of governance by comparing the strategic choices of Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire and Daniel arap Moi of Kenya during the period of political liberalization that swept Africa between 1989 and mid-1993. The differences in response to popular demands for political change in 1989-90 by Houphouët-Boigny and Moi stem from both incentives generated by the countries' different political legacies and the early colonial and independence-era political experiences of the two leaders. The kinds of political tactics the men chose depended on calculations about the institutional capacity to attenuate the effects of economic crisis on the incomes of key elites; the way economic institutions distributed the risks associated with sales of export crops and thereby affected the sense of well-being among rural majorities; the thread of concerted action by parallel associations to public order; the extent to which opposition groups could quickly secure support at the grassroots; and the ability to control opposition access to the media. However, the leaders' personal experience, schooling, the ideas current among their advisers also influenced their decisionmaking. Bibliogr., ref.
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