Suchergebnisse

A review essay on books by (1) Jean-Francois Bayart [Ed], La Greffe de l'Etat ([Transplant of the State] Paris: Karthala, 1996); (2) Mamadou Dia, Africa's Management in the 1990s and Beyond: Reconciling Indigenous and Transplanted Institutions (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1996); (3) Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (NJ: Princeton U Press, 1996); & (4) William Reno, Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone (England: Cambridge U Press, 1995). Each of these texts acknowledges the significance of the fact that contemporary sub-Saharan African states are European rather than African & rarely meet the state criteria of monopolistic power, effectiveness, & legitimacy. Dia refers to the "disconnected state" in his interpretation of economic management problems as an incongruency between formal & indigenous institutions. Bayart speaks of the "rhizome state," but differs from the others in that his examination of African political stability concludes that exogenous institutions have become substantially Africanized. Reno uses the term "shadow state" in his analysis of the informal sector & its relationship to the state in Sierra Leone. Mamdani argues that colonialism resulted in a bifurcation of the state &, in contrast to Dia, interprets even so-called indigenous or native authority as derived from colonialism. All four books offer excellent, though very different, statements on the development-related significance of the state in Africa. E. Blackwell