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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Explanation of African Politics and Society: Toward a Synthesis of Approaches |
Author: | Scarritt, James R. |
Year: | 1986 |
Periodical: | Journal of African Studies (UCLA) |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | Fall |
Pages: | 85-93 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | African studies Politics and Government |
Abstract: | Over the course of the last three decades, there have been two major theoretical reorientations in the study of African politics and society. The first reorientation was the change from legal formalism in the study of colonial government and a focus on the ethnographic present in the study of local communities to an interdisciplinary focus on modernization, political and economic development, and a variety of specific changes included in one or more of these general concepts. The second reorientation, which is still going on, is from the focus on modernization and development to an equally interdisciplinary focus on underdevelopment, dependence, and class formation and conflict. This article suggests that a synthesis of elements taken from each approach or shared by both will provide the most satisfactory explanation of African politics and society. Notes, ref. |