Suchergebnisse

Political science in Nigeria has developed within contextual parameters provided by (a) the multinational character of political science, with particular reference to the hegemonic role of the US in its global diffusion; (b) the statist structure of Nigeria's political economy; and (c) the logic of colonial nationalism. In explaining the character of Nigerian political science within these historically determined contexts, the author proceeds within a theoretical framework which links the development of the discipline to the asymmetrical nature of international social formations, in the division between hegemonic or centre societies and dependent or peripheral ones. But the author also focuses on how factors internal to political science as a vocation in Nigeria have conditioned its development and have interacted with factors external to it.

This article argues that the basic model of Sweden's development policy in Africa represents an attempt to internationalize her own developmental experience. The philosophical underpinnings of that experience are found to be the ideas of integration, solidarity and equality. There is a latent tension between the idea of integration, which implies partial incremental reforms, and that of solidarity, which would presuppose a more radical approach to alleviate the plight of the weakest. After descriptive and evaluative accounts of Swedish development policy in Africa, the author suggests a policy agenda for future efforts in this field. A strategy of accommodation rather than a radical challenge of status quo must, realistically speaking, be a starting point for future Swedish policy. Even within the framework of an accommodationist policy, a critical attitude toward the negative structural features of capitalist development can be brought about. At the international level, Sweden can work for institutional reforms in international organizations concerned with development issues. Such reforms should strive to give the developing countries a more central position in the decision-making structures, while at the same time de-emphasizing the role of the nation-state in favour of collective regional efforts and organizations.