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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The eye of the beholder: service provision and state legitimacy in Burundi
Authors:Stel, Nora
Ndayiragije, Réginas
Year:2014
Periodical:Africa Spectrum (ISSN 0002-0397)
Volume:49
Issue:3
Pages:3-28
Language:English
Geographic term:Burundi
Subjects:State
legitimacy
public services
External link:https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/view/780
Abstract:State legitimacy - particularly its alleged potential to counter state fragility - has received increasing attention in academic and policy literature concerned with African development. Service provision can substantially influence such state legitimacy. Services, however, are mostly provided by a multiplicity of (state and non-state) providers. This article therefore specifically explores how joint service delivery by multiple providers shapes the attribution of state legitimacy in Burundi by means of two qualitative case studies. Empirically, the article demonstrates, first, that the process of stakeholder interaction, rather than the output of this process, most distinctly shapes state legitimacy and, second, that there are substantial variations in legitimacy attribution by different stakeholders and for different state institutions. Epistemologically, the article suggests three specific challenges that merit attention in further empirical investigation of state legitimacy in fragile settings: the diversity of people's expectations; the artificiality of state/non-state distinctions; and the personification and politicization of state institutions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and German. [Journal abstract]
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