Author: Barry Driscoll
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0896805131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308
Book Description
How have the waves of democracy and decentralization that swept the developing world in recent decades affected states—among the most important drivers of poverty and prosperity—at national and local levels in Ghana and beyond? State actors beneath the national level—what Barry Driscoll calls the local state—have considerable responsibility for carrying out state functions, but they are also forced to compete for these local state offices. How does a local state actually work in poor twentieth-century countries? This book offers a descriptive account, as well as a causal explanation, of how political competition affects the local state in Ghana. Driscoll shows how closely fought elections drive local state institutions to provide patronage. The source of these demands for patronage comes not from rent-seeking bureaucrats or landed elites but from the government’s own party volunteers. Driscoll explains how electoral competition affects how local state actors are insulated from such patronage demands. Moreover, these highly competitive, patronage-providing local governments actually have relatively better-qualified senior civil servants at their disposal. Driscoll makes sense of this paradox by introducing the logic of building administrative capacity in order to provide patronage. He then abstracts from the case of Ghana to generalize about how the effect of political competition is shaped by the locally salient variety of clientelism, which in turn is conditioned by the strength of the party system. The book draws on fourteen months of fieldwork in six of Ghana’s districts, far from the nation’s capital city. Ethnographic and interview data come from time spent with market traders, tax collectors, politicians, and other figures in local state offices. Quantitative data come from a survey covering almost all local governments. The result is a detailed account of Ghana’s local state power dynamics that has relevant implications for states across the developing world.
Power, Patronage, and the Local State in Ghana
Author: Barry Driscoll
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0896805131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308
Book Description
How have the waves of democracy and decentralization that swept the developing world in recent decades affected states—among the most important drivers of poverty and prosperity—at national and local levels in Ghana and beyond? State actors beneath the national level—what Barry Driscoll calls the local state—have considerable responsibility for carrying out state functions, but they are also forced to compete for these local state offices. How does a local state actually work in poor twentieth-century countries? This book offers a descriptive account, as well as a causal explanation, of how political competition affects the local state in Ghana. Driscoll shows how closely fought elections drive local state institutions to provide patronage. The source of these demands for patronage comes not from rent-seeking bureaucrats or landed elites but from the government’s own party volunteers. Driscoll explains how electoral competition affects how local state actors are insulated from such patronage demands. Moreover, these highly competitive, patronage-providing local governments actually have relatively better-qualified senior civil servants at their disposal. Driscoll makes sense of this paradox by introducing the logic of building administrative capacity in order to provide patronage. He then abstracts from the case of Ghana to generalize about how the effect of political competition is shaped by the locally salient variety of clientelism, which in turn is conditioned by the strength of the party system. The book draws on fourteen months of fieldwork in six of Ghana’s districts, far from the nation’s capital city. Ethnographic and interview data come from time spent with market traders, tax collectors, politicians, and other figures in local state offices. Quantitative data come from a survey covering almost all local governments. The result is a detailed account of Ghana’s local state power dynamics that has relevant implications for states across the developing world.
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0896805131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308
Book Description
How have the waves of democracy and decentralization that swept the developing world in recent decades affected states—among the most important drivers of poverty and prosperity—at national and local levels in Ghana and beyond? State actors beneath the national level—what Barry Driscoll calls the local state—have considerable responsibility for carrying out state functions, but they are also forced to compete for these local state offices. How does a local state actually work in poor twentieth-century countries? This book offers a descriptive account, as well as a causal explanation, of how political competition affects the local state in Ghana. Driscoll shows how closely fought elections drive local state institutions to provide patronage. The source of these demands for patronage comes not from rent-seeking bureaucrats or landed elites but from the government’s own party volunteers. Driscoll explains how electoral competition affects how local state actors are insulated from such patronage demands. Moreover, these highly competitive, patronage-providing local governments actually have relatively better-qualified senior civil servants at their disposal. Driscoll makes sense of this paradox by introducing the logic of building administrative capacity in order to provide patronage. He then abstracts from the case of Ghana to generalize about how the effect of political competition is shaped by the locally salient variety of clientelism, which in turn is conditioned by the strength of the party system. The book draws on fourteen months of fieldwork in six of Ghana’s districts, far from the nation’s capital city. Ethnographic and interview data come from time spent with market traders, tax collectors, politicians, and other figures in local state offices. Quantitative data come from a survey covering almost all local governments. The result is a detailed account of Ghana’s local state power dynamics that has relevant implications for states across the developing world.
International Studies
Author: Scott Straus
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1544344279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
The challenge of teaching international studies is to help students think coherently about the multiple causes and effects of global problems. In International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions, award-winning scholars Scott Straus and Barry Driscoll give students a clear framework that pinpoints how key factors—forces, interactions, and tensions—contribute to world events, with both global and local consequences. The authors first show students how to look for common patterns in global issues by introducing four world-shaping forces: global markets, shifting centers of power, information and communications technologies, and global governance. They systematically trace how these forces prompt interactions among world actors and thus give rise to a set of tensions that spur key challenges. The framework enables students to ask and answer for themselves—Who is interacting? Where did such interactions develop? What policies or institutions govern them? Why are they getting certain global and local reactions? Students then apply the framework to the global problems that matter most to them: human rights abuses, economic inequality, terrorism, forced migration, pandemics and global health responses, climate change, food security, and more. International Studies raises the bar for the Introduction to IS course, moving beyond interdisciplinary, and into the realm of critical analysis to increase student relevancy and motivation. Give your students the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning. Learn more at edge.sagepub.com/straus1e. Bundle and Save! Your students only pay $5 for The CQ Press Career Guide for Global Politics Students when you bundle it with the print version of International Studies. Use Bundle ISBN: 978-1-5443-5204-6
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1544344279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 496
Book Description
The challenge of teaching international studies is to help students think coherently about the multiple causes and effects of global problems. In International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions, award-winning scholars Scott Straus and Barry Driscoll give students a clear framework that pinpoints how key factors—forces, interactions, and tensions—contribute to world events, with both global and local consequences. The authors first show students how to look for common patterns in global issues by introducing four world-shaping forces: global markets, shifting centers of power, information and communications technologies, and global governance. They systematically trace how these forces prompt interactions among world actors and thus give rise to a set of tensions that spur key challenges. The framework enables students to ask and answer for themselves—Who is interacting? Where did such interactions develop? What policies or institutions govern them? Why are they getting certain global and local reactions? Students then apply the framework to the global problems that matter most to them: human rights abuses, economic inequality, terrorism, forced migration, pandemics and global health responses, climate change, food security, and more. International Studies raises the bar for the Introduction to IS course, moving beyond interdisciplinary, and into the realm of critical analysis to increase student relevancy and motivation. Give your students the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning. Learn more at edge.sagepub.com/straus1e. Bundle and Save! Your students only pay $5 for The CQ Press Career Guide for Global Politics Students when you bundle it with the print version of International Studies. Use Bundle ISBN: 978-1-5443-5204-6
Economies After Colonialism
Author: Lindsay Whitfield
Publisher:
ISBN: 110842614X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
Mapping Ghana's struggle to transform its economy after independence, this original interpretation highlights the economic difficulties associated with the political legacies of colonialism.
Publisher:
ISBN: 110842614X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
Mapping Ghana's struggle to transform its economy after independence, this original interpretation highlights the economic difficulties associated with the political legacies of colonialism.
Confronting Corruption
Author: Jeremy Pope
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bribery
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
The first version of this Source Book argued the case for a "National Integrity System", an holistic approach to transparency and accountability and embracing a range of accountability "pillars", democratic, judicial, media and civil society. The expression has since passed into common usage in development circles, and the argument for an holistic approach to anti-corruption efforts has similarly achieved a widespread consensus. The fight against corruption is not wholly a moral one, in the sense that it is a struggle against the intrinsic "evil" of corruption. Certainly there is a moral element - and one which cuts across al major religions and societies throughout the world. But the compelling reason for the struggle is the suffering and deprivation corruption brings to whole societies, and to the world's most poor. It is concern for the latter, rather than a distaste for the corrupt and their deeds, that rightly drives the global movement against corruption.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bribery
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
The first version of this Source Book argued the case for a "National Integrity System", an holistic approach to transparency and accountability and embracing a range of accountability "pillars", democratic, judicial, media and civil society. The expression has since passed into common usage in development circles, and the argument for an holistic approach to anti-corruption efforts has similarly achieved a widespread consensus. The fight against corruption is not wholly a moral one, in the sense that it is a struggle against the intrinsic "evil" of corruption. Certainly there is a moral element - and one which cuts across al major religions and societies throughout the world. But the compelling reason for the struggle is the suffering and deprivation corruption brings to whole societies, and to the world's most poor. It is concern for the latter, rather than a distaste for the corrupt and their deeds, that rightly drives the global movement against corruption.
A History of Ghana
Author: William Ernest Frank Ward
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ashanti
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ashanti
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
African Politics
Author: Ian Taylor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192529242
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
Africa is a continent of 54 countries and over a billion people. However, despite the rich diversity of the African experience, it is striking that continuations and themes seem to be reflected across the continent, particularly south of the Sahara. Questions of underdevelopment, outside exploitation, and misrule are characteristic of many - if not most-states in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this Very Short Introduction Ian Taylor explores how politics is practiced on the African continent, considering the nature of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Exploring the historical and contemporary factors which account for Africa's underdevelopment, he also analyses why some African countries suffer from high levels of political violence while others are spared. Unveilling the ways in which African state and society actually function beyond the formal institutional façade, Taylor discusses how external factors - both inherited and contemporary - act upon the continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192529242
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
Africa is a continent of 54 countries and over a billion people. However, despite the rich diversity of the African experience, it is striking that continuations and themes seem to be reflected across the continent, particularly south of the Sahara. Questions of underdevelopment, outside exploitation, and misrule are characteristic of many - if not most-states in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this Very Short Introduction Ian Taylor explores how politics is practiced on the African continent, considering the nature of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Exploring the historical and contemporary factors which account for Africa's underdevelopment, he also analyses why some African countries suffer from high levels of political violence while others are spared. Unveilling the ways in which African state and society actually function beyond the formal institutional façade, Taylor discusses how external factors - both inherited and contemporary - act upon the continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa
Author: Rachel Beatty Riedl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Why have seemingly similar African countries developed very different forms of democratic party systems? Despite virtually ubiquitous conditions that are assumed to be challenging to democracy - low levels of economic development, high ethnic heterogeneity, and weak state capacity - nearly two dozen African countries have maintained democratic competition since the early 1990s. Yet the forms of party system competition vary greatly: from highly stable, nationally organized, well-institutionalized party systems to incredibly volatile, particularistic parties in systems with low institutionalization. To explain their divergent development, Rachel Beatty Riedl points to earlier authoritarian strategies to consolidate support and maintain power. The initial stages of democratic opening provide an opportunity for authoritarian incumbents to attempt to shape the rules of the new multiparty system in their own interests, but their power to do so depends on the extent of local support built up over time.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Why have seemingly similar African countries developed very different forms of democratic party systems? Despite virtually ubiquitous conditions that are assumed to be challenging to democracy - low levels of economic development, high ethnic heterogeneity, and weak state capacity - nearly two dozen African countries have maintained democratic competition since the early 1990s. Yet the forms of party system competition vary greatly: from highly stable, nationally organized, well-institutionalized party systems to incredibly volatile, particularistic parties in systems with low institutionalization. To explain their divergent development, Rachel Beatty Riedl points to earlier authoritarian strategies to consolidate support and maintain power. The initial stages of democratic opening provide an opportunity for authoritarian incumbents to attempt to shape the rules of the new multiparty system in their own interests, but their power to do so depends on the extent of local support built up over time.
Changing Natural Resource Regimes in Northern Ghana
Author: Wolfram Laube
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3825806413
Category : Ghana
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
Colonial and national interventions have considerably changed the natural resource regimes regarding water and land in Northern Ghana. However, this change has not led to the establishment of new institutions, but different actors - farmers, bureaucrats, earthpriests, chiefs, and politicians - are continuously engaged in negotiation process over (natural) resources. While the institutional and distributional outcomes of these negotiation processes remain inconclusive they have led to a precarious local power balance, in which different actors rely on different institutions and changing political alliances to pursue their interests.
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3825806413
Category : Ghana
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
Colonial and national interventions have considerably changed the natural resource regimes regarding water and land in Northern Ghana. However, this change has not led to the establishment of new institutions, but different actors - farmers, bureaucrats, earthpriests, chiefs, and politicians - are continuously engaged in negotiation process over (natural) resources. While the institutional and distributional outcomes of these negotiation processes remain inconclusive they have led to a precarious local power balance, in which different actors rely on different institutions and changing political alliances to pursue their interests.
Violence in African Elections
Author: Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1786992310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results. While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes. By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics. Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1786992310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results. While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes. By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics. Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.
The New Local Level Politics in East Africa
Author: Karuti Kanyinga
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description