Samuel Hickey
Biographic Data
| ID | 457330 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samuel Hickey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samuel |
| FAMILY NAME | Hickey |
| SIGNATURE | HICKEY S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5159-883X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 530 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The politics of informal settlements in African cities
Many of the development challenges represented by informal settlements in global South cities – where most low-income urban residents live – are profoundly political in nature, involving entrenched interests, the interplay of competitive and patronage politics and the constrained political agency of low-income urban residents. However, and despite the growing literature on the politics of democratisation, clientelism and ethnicity in African citi…
Capturing the disruptive nature of green energy transitions
This paper seeks to develop a new analytical framework for understanding the disruptive dynamics of green energy transitions. While the empirical reality of such disruptions is widely recognised, the only literature within which disruption has been explicitly conceptualised is that arising within the socio-technical transitions research tradition through the notion of “disruptive innovation.” We argue that this approach, centred on technological …
Reframing the politics of natural resource governance in Africa
New oil‐producing countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa have moved rapidly to adopt local content legislation to ensure that locally owned firms benefit from natural resource finds. Current research into this move frames local content development in Africa as existing on a continuum between elite projects to accumulate rents and build a domestic capitalist class. This article problematizes such accounts through an in‐depth case study of Ghana. By deplo…
The politics of promoting social cash transfers in Uganda
Alternative routes to the institutionalisation of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa
The new phase of social protection expansion in the global south remains poorly understood. Current interpretations of the spread of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa tend to emphasize the influence of elections and donor pressure, often by drawing correlations from statistical data, and focusing on the moment of programme adoption. This study adopts a different approach that traces the actual process through which countries have not just ad…
The politics of governing oil after ‘best-practice’ reforms
Responding to the commodity boom with varieties of resource nationalism
Covid-19 and the case for global development
Branislav Hock, Extraterritoriality and International Bribery, Abingdon, New York, NY
The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa
The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing countries has now been mainstreamed within international development policy and practice. Promoted as an integral dimension of the post-Washington Consensus that emerged around the turn of the new millennium, all major international development agencies and bilateral donors now include a strong focus on social protection in their advocacy and programmati…
The Negotiated Politics of Social Protection in East and Southern Africa
Social assistance programmes proliferated and expanded across much of the global South from the mid-1990s. Within Africa there has been enormous variation in this trend: some governments expanded coverage dramatically while others resisted this. The existing literature on social assistance, or social protection more broadly, offers little in explanation of this variation. Drawing on the literature on political settlements and democratic politics,…
The Problem of Education Quality in Developing Countries
The universalization of basic education was set to be one of the great policy successes of the twentieth century, yet millions are still unenrolled, and many of those who attended school learned little. The ‘learning crisis’ now dominates the global education policy agenda, yet little is understood of why education quality reforms have had so little success compared to earlier expansionary reforms. This chapter sets out the rationale for this boo…
Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South
The fact that women have achieved higher levels of political inclusion within low- and middle-income countries has generated much speculation about whether this is reaping broader benefits in tackling gender-based inequalities. This book uncovers the multiple political dynamics that influence governments to adopt and implement gender equity policies, pushing the debate beyond simply the role of women’s inclusion in influencing policy. Bringing th…
Understanding Social Accountability
Calls to deepen levels of social accountability within social protection interventions need to be informed by the now extensive experience of promoting social accountability in developing countries. Drawing on a systematic review of over 90 social accountability interventions, including some involving social protection, this paper shows that politics and context are critical to shaping their success. We argue that the politics of social protectio…
Building Democracy from Below
How to achieve democratisation in the neo-patrimonial and agrarian environments that predominate in sub-Saharan Africa continues to present a challenge for both development theory and practice. Drawing on intensive fieldwork in Western Uganda, this paper argues that Charles Tilly’s ‘democratisation as process’ provides us with the framework required to explain the ways in which particular kinds of association can advance democratisation from belo…
Conceptualising the politics of social protection expansion in low income countries
The growing literature on social protection in low income developing countries has tended to focus on definitional debates, policy design and impact evaluations, with relatively little consideration of the ways in which politics shape policy. This article argues that politics needs to be at the centre of efforts to understand social protection and outlines a new conceptual framework for investigating this, with a particular focus on explaining th…
The Politics of Governing Oil in Uganda
The capacity and commitment of Uganda to govern its oil in developmental ways has generally been discussed through a new institutionalist prism that focuses on the dangers of the ‘resource curse’. This article argues that the developmental potential of oil in Uganda can be better understood through a political settlements framework that goes beyond a focus on institutional form to examine how deeper forms of power and politics shape oil governanc…
The Politics of Development Under Competitive Clientelism
Debates over whether democracy or political clientelism would drive the politics of development in Africa have increasingly given way to more nuanced readings that seek to capture the dynamic interplay of these forms of politics. However, most current analyses struggle to identify the specific causal mechanisms through which politics shapes the actual distribution of resources. A political settlements approach, which emphasizes the distribution o…
The master of institutional multiplicity? The shifting politics of regime survival, state-building and democratisation in Museveni's Uganda
Current understandings of regime survival in Uganda tend to over-emphasise the role of 'semi-authoritarian' and 'neopatrimonial' politics and neglect the extent to which the regime deploys alternative strategies of political rule that also involve 'soft' forms of power and formal elements of state-building. The regime's extensive deployment of 'soft' power includes President Museveni's responsiveness to popular concerns and fears and the careful …
Investigating the Political Economy of Social Protection Expansion in Africa
The Politics of Inclusive Development
It is now widely accepted that politics plays a significant role in shaping the possibilities for inclusive development. However, the specific ways in which this happens across different types and forms of development, and in different contexts, remains poorly understood. This collection provides the state of the art review regarding what is currently known about the politics of inclusive development. Leading academics offer systematic reviews of…
Relocating Social Protection within a Radical Project of Social Justice
Beyond ‘Poverty Reduction through Good Governance’
The new political economy of development, characterised by the rising powers' new resource finds in many poor countries and the financial crisis, has driven development ideas and practices towards a paradigm shift, moving it beyond the post-Washington Consensus which marked the high point of development's 'Poverty Reduction through Good Governance' agenda. This has important implications for the extent to which developing countries remain governe…
Beyond the Poverty Agenda? Insights from the New Politics of Development in Uganda
The politics of development has shifted significantly in recent years, with largely negative implications for the poverty agenda. This is particularly apparent in countries like Uganda where “poverty reduction papers” have been displaced by national development plans aimed at “structural transformation,” driven by the discovery of oil, the growing influence of rising powers vis-à-vis traditional donors and domestic political shifts. Although this…
Turning Governance Thinking Upside-down? Insights from ‘the politics of what works’
Mainstream thinking within international development around what constitutes ‘pro-poor’ forms of politics is increasingly at odds with the growing evidence-base on the politics of development. Ideological bias towards Weberian modes of governance and rational actor models of political behaviour, and a growing belief in the power of ‘evidence-based policy making’ fail to reflect the extent to which informal and patronage-based forms can sometimes …
Relocating Participation within a Radical Politics of Development
In response to (and in sympathy with) many of the critical points that have been lodged against participatory approaches to development and governance within international development, this article seeks to relocate participation within a radical politics of development. We argue that participation needs to be theoretically and strategically informed by a radical notion of 'citizenship', and be located within the 'critical modernist' approach to …
Reclaiming Development? NGOs and the Challenge of Alternatives
Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa
Covid-19 and the case for global development
The politics of social protection
There have been growing calls to reframe the politics of poverty reduction and of social protection in particular, in terms of extending the 'social contract' to the poorest groups. This is often understood as relocating social protection within a broader project politics of rights and justice as opposed to patronage. However, such calls belie the serious differences that exist between different strands of social contract and between the forms of…
Conceptualising the politics of social protection expansion in low income countries
The growing literature on social protection in low income developing countries has tended to focus on definitional debates, policy design and impact evaluations, with relatively little consideration of the ways in which politics shape policy. This article argues that politics needs to be at the centre of efforts to understand social protection and outlines a new conceptual framework for investigating this, with a particular focus on explaining th…
Exploring the Politics of Chronic Poverty
The Politics of Inclusive Development
It is now widely accepted that politics plays a significant role in shaping the possibilities for inclusive development. However, the specific ways in which this happens across different types and forms of development, and in different contexts, remains poorly understood. This collection provides the state of the art review regarding what is currently known about the politics of inclusive development. Leading academics offer systematic reviews of…
Beyond the Poverty Agenda? Insights from the New Politics of Development in Uganda
The politics of development has shifted significantly in recent years, with largely negative implications for the poverty agenda. This is particularly apparent in countries like Uganda where “poverty reduction papers” have been displaced by national development plans aimed at “structural transformation,” driven by the discovery of oil, the growing influence of rising powers vis-à-vis traditional donors and domestic political shifts. Although this…
Alternative routes to the institutionalisation of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa
The new phase of social protection expansion in the global south remains poorly understood. Current interpretations of the spread of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa tend to emphasize the influence of elections and donor pressure, often by drawing correlations from statistical data, and focusing on the moment of programme adoption. This study adopts a different approach that traces the actual process through which countries have not just ad…
The master of institutional multiplicity? The shifting politics of regime survival, state-building and democratisation in Museveni's Uganda
Current understandings of regime survival in Uganda tend to over-emphasise the role of 'semi-authoritarian' and 'neopatrimonial' politics and neglect the extent to which the regime deploys alternative strategies of political rule that also involve 'soft' forms of power and formal elements of state-building. The regime's extensive deployment of 'soft' power includes President Museveni's responsiveness to popular concerns and fears and the careful …
The politics of establishing pro-poor accountability
The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) experiment, along with other innovations promoted by the international financial institutions over the past decade, has promised to secure pro-poor forms of accountability in relation to development policy-making. New consultative processes and new forms of conditionality each promise to re-order relationships between poor citizens and their governments, and between governments and donors respectively. Using e…
The politics of staying poor
Relocating Social Protection within a Radical Project of Social Justice
The politics of protecting the poorest
Beyond ‘Poverty Reduction through Good Governance’
The new political economy of development, characterised by the rising powers' new resource finds in many poor countries and the financial crisis, has driven development ideas and practices towards a paradigm shift, moving it beyond the post-Washington Consensus which marked the high point of development's 'Poverty Reduction through Good Governance' agenda. This has important implications for the extent to which developing countries remain governe…
Reframing the politics of natural resource governance in Africa
New oil‐producing countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa have moved rapidly to adopt local content legislation to ensure that locally owned firms benefit from natural resource finds. Current research into this move frames local content development in Africa as existing on a continuum between elite projects to accumulate rents and build a domestic capitalist class. This article problematizes such accounts through an in‐depth case study of Ghana. By deplo…
Turning Governance Thinking Upside-down? Insights from ‘the politics of what works’
Mainstream thinking within international development around what constitutes ‘pro-poor’ forms of politics is increasingly at odds with the growing evidence-base on the politics of development. Ideological bias towards Weberian modes of governance and rational actor models of political behaviour, and a growing belief in the power of ‘evidence-based policy making’ fail to reflect the extent to which informal and patronage-based forms can sometimes …
The Politics of Governing Oil in Uganda
The capacity and commitment of Uganda to govern its oil in developmental ways has generally been discussed through a new institutionalist prism that focuses on the dangers of the ‘resource curse’. This article argues that the developmental potential of oil in Uganda can be better understood through a political settlements framework that goes beyond a focus on institutional form to examine how deeper forms of power and politics shape oil governanc…
Responding to the commodity boom with varieties of resource nationalism
The return of politics in development studies I
The politics of governing oil after ‘best-practice’ reforms
The Politics of Development Under Competitive Clientelism
Debates over whether democracy or political clientelism would drive the politics of development in Africa have increasingly given way to more nuanced readings that seek to capture the dynamic interplay of these forms of politics. However, most current analyses struggle to identify the specific causal mechanisms through which politics shapes the actual distribution of resources. A political settlements approach, which emphasizes the distribution o…
The return of politics in development studies (II)
Transnational NGDOS and participatory forms of rights‐based development
The transmission of ‘participatory development’ by transnational non‐governmental development organizations (NGDOs) to local ‘partners’ in developing countries is today widely criticized, often because of an apparent failure to attain the essentially political goal of ‘empowerment’. This article argues that this problem relates closely to a failure amongst NGDOs to engage with the political context in which ‘citizenship participation’ is conteste…
The politics of staying poor
Exploring the Politics of Chronic Poverty
Relocating Participation within a Radical Politics of Development
In response to (and in sympathy with) many of the critical points that have been lodged against participatory approaches to development and governance within international development, this article seeks to relocate participation within a radical politics of development. We argue that participation needs to be theoretically and strategically informed by a radical notion of 'citizenship', and be located within the 'critical modernist' approach to …
Adverse Incorporation, Social Exclusion and Chronic Poverty
Conceptualising the Politics of Social Protection in Africa
Caught At The Crossroads
This chapter reveals how the social histories and structures of particular groups combine with wider trajectories of state formation and politics in ways that shape citizenship rights and status. It aims to show that the case of the Mbororo'en resonates with the key dimensions and dynamics of citizenship debates within Cameroon, and perhaps suggests a need to rethink the contours of these debates, particularly regarding the role of marginal group…
Can NGOs Make a Difference
Can non-governmental organisations contribute to more socially just, alternative forms of development? Or are they destined to work at the margins of dominant development models determined by others? Addressing this question, this book brings together leading international voices from academia, NGOs and the social movements. It provides a comprehensive update to the NGO literature and a range of critical new directions to thinking and acting arou…
Reclaiming Development? NGOs and the Challenge of Alternatives
The return of politics in development studies I
The politics of establishing pro-poor accountability
The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) experiment, along with other innovations promoted by the international financial institutions over the past decade, has promised to secure pro-poor forms of accountability in relation to development policy-making. New consultative processes and new forms of conditionality each promise to re-order relationships between poor citizens and their governments, and between governments and donors respectively. Using e…
The return of politics in development studies (II)
The politics of protecting the poorest
The Politics of What Works in Reducing Chronic Poverty - A Synthesis Report for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
The Government of Chronic Poverty
Development trustees have increasingly sought to challenge chronic poverty by promoting citizenship amongst poor people, a move that frames citizenship formation as central to overcoming the exclusions and inequalities associated with uneven development. For sceptics, this move within inclusive neoliberalism is inevitably depoliticising and disempowering, and our cases do suggest that citizenship-based strategies rarely alter the underlying basis…
Governing Chronic Poverty under Inclusive Liberalism
The paradigm of 'inclusive neoliberalism' that currently characterises international development places a particular emphasis on community-based responses to the often structural problems of poverty and exclusion. Such approaches have become increasingly controversial: celebrated by optimists as the most empowering way forward for marginal citizens on the one hand, and derided as an abrogation of responsibility by development trustees by sceptics…
Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa
The politics of social protection
There have been growing calls to reframe the politics of poverty reduction and of social protection in particular, in terms of extending the 'social contract' to the poorest groups. This is often understood as relocating social protection within a broader project politics of rights and justice as opposed to patronage. However, such calls belie the serious differences that exist between different strands of social contract and between the forms of…
Beyond ‘Poverty Reduction through Good Governance’
The new political economy of development, characterised by the rising powers' new resource finds in many poor countries and the financial crisis, has driven development ideas and practices towards a paradigm shift, moving it beyond the post-Washington Consensus which marked the high point of development's 'Poverty Reduction through Good Governance' agenda. This has important implications for the extent to which developing countries remain governe…
Beyond the Poverty Agenda? Insights from the New Politics of Development in Uganda
The politics of development has shifted significantly in recent years, with largely negative implications for the poverty agenda. This is particularly apparent in countries like Uganda where “poverty reduction papers” have been displaced by national development plans aimed at “structural transformation,” driven by the discovery of oil, the growing influence of rising powers vis-à-vis traditional donors and domestic political shifts. Although this…
Turning Governance Thinking Upside-down? Insights from ‘the politics of what works’
Mainstream thinking within international development around what constitutes ‘pro-poor’ forms of politics is increasingly at odds with the growing evidence-base on the politics of development. Ideological bias towards Weberian modes of governance and rational actor models of political behaviour, and a growing belief in the power of ‘evidence-based policy making’ fail to reflect the extent to which informal and patronage-based forms can sometimes …
The Politics of Inclusive Development
It is now widely accepted that politics plays a significant role in shaping the possibilities for inclusive development. However, the specific ways in which this happens across different types and forms of development, and in different contexts, remains poorly understood. This collection provides the state of the art review regarding what is currently known about the politics of inclusive development. Leading academics offer systematic reviews of…
Relocating Social Protection within a Radical Project of Social Justice
Investigating the Political Economy of Social Protection Expansion in Africa
Understanding Social Accountability
Calls to deepen levels of social accountability within social protection interventions need to be informed by the now extensive experience of promoting social accountability in developing countries. Drawing on a systematic review of over 90 social accountability interventions, including some involving social protection, this paper shows that politics and context are critical to shaping their success. We argue that the politics of social protectio…
Political science (38 works) · Politics (35 works) · Law (33 works) · Economics (30 works) · Political economy (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · International Development and Aid (22 works) · Development economics (17 works) · Economic growth (14 works) · Law (14 works)