Joan Ricart-Huguet
Biographic Data
| ID | 1162368 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joan Ricart-Huguet |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joan |
| FAMILY NAME | Ricart-Huguet |
| SIGNATURE | RICART-HUGUET J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Loyola University Maryland |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4553-9563 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The origins of dual malapportionment
Senegal
Senegal experienced much political turbulence under President Macky Sall. Journalists and observers regularly make two claims. The first is that Senegal has long been a haven of stability and democracy in Africa. The second is that the anti-democratic and repressive moves by President Sall led to an institutional crisis without precedent. We partially correct these two popular claims. With minor caveats, Senegal has indeed been a haven of politic…
Endogenous Colonial Borders
We revise the conventional wisdom that Africa's international borders were drawn arbitrarily. Europeans knew very little about most of Africa in the mid-1880s, but their self-interested goals of amassing territory prompted intensive examination of on-the-ground conditions as they formed borders. Europeans negotiated with African rulers to secure treaties and to learn about historical state frontiers, which enabled Africans to influence the border…
The Politics of Decentralization Level
Most contemporary decentralization has occurred at the local (district) rather than the regional (provincial) level. Why? The authors advance a theory highlighting the political incentives of central authorities to bypass the regional tier of government in favor of decentralizing to smaller, more fragmented units. Regional decentralization can capitalize on economies of scale and scope in public service provision, but it also enables political op…
Does Land Quality Increase the Power of Traditional Leaders in Contemporary Africa
The power of traditional leaders varies across and within sub-Saharan African countries. Existing literature explains this as the result of state-building decisions about where to employ indirect rule in the colonial and postcolonial periods. We argue that the contemporary power of traditional leaders is also influenced by land quality. In the precolonial period, land quality played little role in encouraging political centralization due to its a…
When the Sorting Hat Sorts Randomly
Culture is a central but elusive concept in the social sciences, and so are its effects. We leverage a natural experiment in the oldest university in East Africa — a cradle of economic and political elites — where students are randomly assigned to live in halls of residence that have maintained distinct student cultures since the 1970s. A broad consensus at the university characterizes certain halls as sociable and activist, and others as academi…
State Disengagement
How do states respond to political resistance? The standard repression or concession logic presumes that the state is strong enough to punish or co-opt dissent effectively. Instead, we argue that the state may disengage when it is weak. We show that colonial governments in French West Africa reduced public investments in districts where chiefs engaged in largely nonviolent disobedience. However, we also show that chieftain disobedience reduced go…
The Origins of Colonial Investments in Former British and French Africa
Colonial investments impacted long-run political and economic development, but there is little systematic evidence of their origins and spatial distribution. Combining novel data sources, this article shows that colonial investments were very unequally distributed within sixteen British and French African colonies. What led colonial states to invest much more in some districts than others? The author argues that natural harbors and capes led some…
Why do different cultures form and persist? Learning from the case of Makerere University
Culture is a central concept in the social sciences. It is also difficult to examine rigorously. I study the oldest university in East Africa and a cradle of political elites, Makerere University, where halls of residence developed distinct cultures in the 1970s such that some hall cultures are activist (e.g. Lumumba Hall) while others are respectful to authorities (e.g. Livingstone Hall) even though assignment to halls has been random since 1970…
Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa
Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regi…
The Origins of Colonial Investments in Former British and French Africa
Taking it Personally
Graduate Students and Scholars Funded
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa
Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regi…
The Origins of Colonial Investments in Former British and French Africa
Colonial investments impacted long-run political and economic development, but there is little systematic evidence of their origins and spatial distribution. Combining novel data sources, this article shows that colonial investments were very unequally distributed within sixteen British and French African colonies. What led colonial states to invest much more in some districts than others? The author argues that natural harbors and capes led some…
Endogenous Colonial Borders
We revise the conventional wisdom that Africa's international borders were drawn arbitrarily. Europeans knew very little about most of Africa in the mid-1880s, but their self-interested goals of amassing territory prompted intensive examination of on-the-ground conditions as they formed borders. Europeans negotiated with African rulers to secure treaties and to learn about historical state frontiers, which enabled Africans to influence the border…
State Disengagement
How do states respond to political resistance? The standard repression or concession logic presumes that the state is strong enough to punish or co-opt dissent effectively. Instead, we argue that the state may disengage when it is weak. We show that colonial governments in French West Africa reduced public investments in districts where chiefs engaged in largely nonviolent disobedience. However, we also show that chieftain disobedience reduced go…
The Politics of Decentralization Level
Most contemporary decentralization has occurred at the local (district) rather than the regional (provincial) level. Why? The authors advance a theory highlighting the political incentives of central authorities to bypass the regional tier of government in favor of decentralizing to smaller, more fragmented units. Regional decentralization can capitalize on economies of scale and scope in public service provision, but it also enables political op…
Does Land Quality Increase the Power of Traditional Leaders in Contemporary Africa
The power of traditional leaders varies across and within sub-Saharan African countries. Existing literature explains this as the result of state-building decisions about where to employ indirect rule in the colonial and postcolonial periods. We argue that the contemporary power of traditional leaders is also influenced by land quality. In the precolonial period, land quality played little role in encouraging political centralization due to its a…
When the Sorting Hat Sorts Randomly
Culture is a central but elusive concept in the social sciences, and so are its effects. We leverage a natural experiment in the oldest university in East Africa — a cradle of economic and political elites — where students are randomly assigned to live in halls of residence that have maintained distinct student cultures since the 1970s. A broad consensus at the university characterizes certain halls as sociable and activist, and others as academi…
Why do different cultures form and persist? Learning from the case of Makerere University
Culture is a central concept in the social sciences. It is also difficult to examine rigorously. I study the oldest university in East Africa and a cradle of political elites, Makerere University, where halls of residence developed distinct cultures in the 1970s such that some hall cultures are activist (e.g. Lumumba Hall) while others are respectful to authorities (e.g. Livingstone Hall) even though assignment to halls has been random since 1970…
Taking it Personally
Graduate Students and Scholars Funded
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Taking it Personally
The Origins of Colonial Investments in Former British and French Africa
Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa
Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regi…
When the Sorting Hat Sorts Randomly
Culture is a central but elusive concept in the social sciences, and so are its effects. We leverage a natural experiment in the oldest university in East Africa — a cradle of economic and political elites — where students are randomly assigned to live in halls of residence that have maintained distinct student cultures since the 1970s. A broad consensus at the university characterizes certain halls as sociable and activist, and others as academi…
State Disengagement
How do states respond to political resistance? The standard repression or concession logic presumes that the state is strong enough to punish or co-opt dissent effectively. Instead, we argue that the state may disengage when it is weak. We show that colonial governments in French West Africa reduced public investments in districts where chiefs engaged in largely nonviolent disobedience. However, we also show that chieftain disobedience reduced go…
The Origins of Colonial Investments in Former British and French Africa
Colonial investments impacted long-run political and economic development, but there is little systematic evidence of their origins and spatial distribution. Combining novel data sources, this article shows that colonial investments were very unequally distributed within sixteen British and French African colonies. What led colonial states to invest much more in some districts than others? The author argues that natural harbors and capes led some…
Why do different cultures form and persist? Learning from the case of Makerere University
Culture is a central concept in the social sciences. It is also difficult to examine rigorously. I study the oldest university in East Africa and a cradle of political elites, Makerere University, where halls of residence developed distinct cultures in the 1970s such that some hall cultures are activist (e.g. Lumumba Hall) while others are respectful to authorities (e.g. Livingstone Hall) even though assignment to halls has been random since 1970…
The Politics of Decentralization Level
Most contemporary decentralization has occurred at the local (district) rather than the regional (provincial) level. Why? The authors advance a theory highlighting the political incentives of central authorities to bypass the regional tier of government in favor of decentralizing to smaller, more fragmented units. Regional decentralization can capitalize on economies of scale and scope in public service provision, but it also enables political op…
Does Land Quality Increase the Power of Traditional Leaders in Contemporary Africa
The power of traditional leaders varies across and within sub-Saharan African countries. Existing literature explains this as the result of state-building decisions about where to employ indirect rule in the colonial and postcolonial periods. We argue that the contemporary power of traditional leaders is also influenced by land quality. In the precolonial period, land quality played little role in encouraging political centralization due to its a…
The origins of dual malapportionment
Senegal
Senegal experienced much political turbulence under President Macky Sall. Journalists and observers regularly make two claims. The first is that Senegal has long been a haven of stability and democracy in Africa. The second is that the anti-democratic and repressive moves by President Sall led to an institutional crisis without precedent. We partially correct these two popular claims. With minor caveats, Senegal has indeed been a haven of politic…
Endogenous Colonial Borders
We revise the conventional wisdom that Africa's international borders were drawn arbitrarily. Europeans knew very little about most of Africa in the mid-1880s, but their self-interested goals of amassing territory prompted intensive examination of on-the-ground conditions as they formed borders. Europeans negotiated with African rulers to secure treaties and to learn about historical state frontiers, which enabled Africans to influence the border…
Political science (10 works) · Geography (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Colonialism (6 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (6 works) · Development economics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Political economy (5 works)