African State Governance - by A Carl Levan & Joseph Olayinka Fashagba & Edward R McMahon (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book offers a comprehensive picture of state and local legislative politics in Africa and a detailed examination of formal and informal political authority in the states, provinces and counties. It considers the pace and nature of change of African federalism is changing - identifying a variety of subnational institutions emerging as centres of policy control - and asks the key questions: how do state legislatures affect the balance of power between governors and the national executive? What influences state-level budgetary control? Given recent decentralization and various political reforms, what is a state legislature? How will Africa's new oil discoveries impact distributive politics? The book explores how executive-legislative relations often differ across levels of government, even where the party system otherwise seems similar, and argues that these differences are not simply the result of limited resources or experience, but due to misaligned institutional incentives.Chapters on Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa fill an important gap in comparative institutional research about state and local politics, and consider how identified trends could lead either to the promotion of democratic reform - or the consolidation of illiberal local politicians and 'godfathers' in Africa"--

Book Synopsis

Africa is changing and it is easy to overlook how decentralization, democratization, and new forms of illiberalism have transformed federalism, political parties, and local politics. Chapters on Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa help fill an important gap in comparative institutional research about state and local politics in Africa.

Review Quotes

"This book offers an encompassing analysis of the state of subnational political institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. ... an ambitious book that shows how subnational legislative politics and local democratic development are weakly linked in Africa. This book will become an important reference for those interested in subnational legislative institutions as the missing link in the processes of political change in Africa." (Hélder Ferreira do Vale, Democratization, Vol. 24 (4), 2017)

About the Author

Yahaya Baba, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Nigeria. Olufunmbi 'Funmbi' M. Elemo, Michigan State University, USA. Joseph Olayinka Fashagba, Landmark University, Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria. Solomon Gofie, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia A. Carl LeVan, American University, Washington, D.C, USA. Majuta J. Mamogale, Limpopo Provincial Legislature, Limpopo Province, South Africa Edward E. McMahon, University of Vermont, USA. Westen Kwatemba Shilaho, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Rotimi Suberu, Bennington College, Vermont, USA.