African Democracy and Development - by Cassandra Rachel Veney & Dick Simpson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book is examines particular African countries that are recovering from civil wars that left thousands of their citizens internally displaced or as refugees in surrounding countries. The countries examined in the book are in the process of rebuilding institutions of govern...

Book Synopsis

This book is examines particular African countries that are recovering from civil wars that left thousands of their citizens internally displaced or as refugees in surrounding countries. The countries examined in the book are in the process of rebuilding institutions of governance that include judicial, legislative, and executive branches.

Review Quotes

African Democracy and Development edited by Simpson and Veney is an excellent discussion of post-conflict situations in Africa. Sierra Leone and Rwanda are the most deeply explored here and are two of the most spectacular cases of conflict in recent history. This work advances how we think about and study a welcome phenomenon in contemporary African states.

The literature on the challenges faced by post-conflict states is abundant. It is thus welcome that this edited book does not try to provide broad discussions but rather tackles precise and essential aspects of post-war situations. This constitutes the common thread of the book as it is quite successful in picking diverse but key issues related to post-conflict contexts. The book's second unifying principle is that it has a geographical bias towards Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and to a lesser extent Liberia and Mozambique.

About the Author

Cassandra Veney is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University/Los Angeles, California. Her primary area of research has concentrated on the politics of forced migration in Kenya and Tanzania.

Dick Simpson is a professor and former Department Head in the Department of Polticial Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also a former Chicago Alderman whose primary areas of research include Sierra Leone and American politics, elections, and urban politics.