Jeffrey Herbst
Biographic Data
| ID | 91180 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeffrey Herbst |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeffrey |
| FAMILY NAME | Herbst |
| SIGNATURE | HERBST J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Princeton University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 66 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 621 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 66 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982-1991
Learning from Somalia
The Politics of Privatization in Africa
Ideas to help promote economic development in Africa tend to burst onto the continent with great brilliance and then quickly fade as the initial enthusiasm for the panacea is replaced by disillusionment in the harsh light of reality. The idea to engender great enthusiasm in Africa is privatization: there is an emerging consensus that African state-owned enterprises are extremely inefficient and tend to drain even more resources from the state tha…
The Structural Adjustment of Politics in Africa
The structural adjustment programs currently being proposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Africa have important political consequences. Most African leaders operate in political systems where votes do not matter. Instead, rulers try to institutionalize their regimes by establishing webs of patron-client relations to garner the support necessary to remain in power. The paradigmatic example of state intervention in …
Shopping for Ideas to Unlock Africa’s Economic Potential Asnake Kefale
Africa’s Third Liberation examines how the continent could finally liberate itself from degrading poverty. Mills and Herbst contend that Africa’s first two liberations, liberation from colonialists and liberation from the liberators, would remain incomplete unless Africa is able to ensure development that provides decent life to its people and jobs to the restless youth. The third liberation, according to the authors, should also free the contine…
States and Power in Africa
Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. This book places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective. Its bold contention—that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long before European penetration of the continent—…
Appendix
10.23943/princeton/9780691164137.003.0011.007.0004CountryJus Sanguinis?CountryJus Sanguinis?AngolaNoLesothoNoBeninYesLiberiaNoBotswanaYesMalawiYesBurkinaYesMali
The Coin of the African Realm
This chapter examines the politics of the currency in West Africa from the beginning of the twentieth century. A public series of debates over the nature of the currency occurred in West Africa during both the colonial and independence periods. Since 1983, West African countries have been pioneers in Africa in developing new strategies to combat overvaluation of the currency and reduce the control of government over the currency supply. The chapt…
National Design and the Broadcasting of Power
This chapter examines the effect of national design on African politics by focusing on the ramifications of the size and shape of nations. It argues that the particular political challenges that African countries face in broadcasting power, combined with the understanding of sovereignty that has developed, cause the calculations regarding national design to be radically different from the conventional wisdom that has developed based on the Europe…
The Politics of Migration and Citizenship
This chapter examines how changing patterns of migration and the dynamics of citizenship laws both affect and reflect the abilities of African states to consolidate power. It shows that these two phenomena are interconnected because citizenship laws embody the identities that African states have tried to construct on the assumption that populations are no longer mobile. It argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, African boundaries have fund…
Power and Space in Precolonial Africa
This chapter examines the theory and practice of broadcasting power in precolonial Africa. In particular, it explores the nonterritorial nature of power and how African rulers in the time prior to the arrival of the Europeans conceived of their boundaries. It considers how the combination of large amounts of open land and rain-fed agriculture meant that, in precolonial Africa, control of territory was often not contested because it was often easi…
The Europeans and the African Problem
This chapter examines the persistence of what the Afro-Caribbean diplomat Edward W. Blyden called “the African Problem”—the inability of Europe to conquer Africa in the same manner as other regions—throughout the brief (by historical standards) period of formal European rule. European colonialism wrought changes in Africa that were so fundamental as to mark a new era in African politics, such as creating the immediate predecessors to today’s stat…
The Political Kingdom in Independent Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
This chapter examines the most revolutionary aspect of Africa’s independence: the attempt to build a large number of states during peace, with particular emphasis on the boundaries and state system that the Africans constructed for themselves. After gaining independence in the early 1960s, African leaders were faced with a major dilemma. If the states, with their colonial power gradients, were to change, the new leaders would have to give up many…
States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In States and Power in Africa , Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective. Herbst's bold contention—that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long bef…
Carter Johnson, Partition and Post-War Violence Case Study of Moldova and Pridnestrovie
Partition advocates argue that ethnic groups must be separated completely in order to prevent renewed violence but Moldova is an exception with its large “stay-behind” minority and a lack of renewed violence. This chapter uses Moldova to develop partition theory, presenting an institutionalized explanation that focuses on the interaction between state-building and minority collaboration in a post-war context. The chapter argues that strong state …
State Failure and Challenges to Democratization in Africa
Robert H. Bates's new book When Things Fell Apart seeks to make a contribution in two different areas. Explicitly, it joins a large literature on why state institutions collapsed in sub-Saharan Africa, especially why leaders drove one economy after the next into the ground. Less emphatically stated but clear enough from the book's content and its structure is an important contribution to political science's “culture wars” over the use of differen…
Africans Like Markets; Why Don’t They Favor Capitalism
The recent study of African politics suggests that while African voters tend to be ambivalently positive about democratic reforms, they are even less supportive of market reforms. African states have, if anything, been ahead of their publics in instituting economic reforms. But African leaders have failed to explain or defend these policies to their electorates. This may reflect their own ambivalence—at best—about capitalism. Notes 1. “Economic f…
South Africa After the Age of Heroes
The silver lining accompanying the anc's premature display of elite instability is that the country's democracy, just 14 years old, is itself demonstrating new maturity
Mbeki's South Africa
IN THE 11 years since it abandoned white minority rule, South Africa has become two different countries. The first is a dramatic success story: once wracked by violence and synonymous with human rights abuses, this South Africa now boasts a stable political system based on a liberal constitution defended by honest courts. It holds regular, free, and fair elections, and the ruling National Congress (ANc) enjoys enormous support. This South Africa …
African Militaries and Rebellion: The Political Economy of Threat and Combat Effectiveness
War in Africa has recently attracted significant attention because the continent seems more prone to conflict than others and because any disruption in security is especially threatening to populations, like those in most of Africa, where people are already living at the margins. A growing and productive literature has emerged focussing on the motivations of rebels during these wars. Important econometric work has attempted to explain the economi…
Analyzing Apartheid: How accurate were US intelligence estimates of South Africa, 1948–94
The domestic political situation in South Africa was an issue of concern for US policymakers, and thus for the American intelligence community, from 1948 to 1994. This paper uses recently declassified intelligence assessments of South Africa to evaluate how successful American analysts were in predicting the evolution of apartheid in the uncertain mediumterm. I find that, contrary to much of the literature on US–South Africa relations specificall…
Africa and the war on terror
An analysis of the links between weak states and terrorism; strategies to combat the spread of terrorism in countries where populations may be vulnerable; and a look at Africa's situation in the US's war against terror
The Unanswered Question: Attempting to Explain the Rwandan Genocide
Political Liberalization in Africa after Ten Years
It has now been over ten years since the initial protests that led to the unprecedented turnover of leaders in Africa in free and fair elections. Enough time has passed to review how well scholarly commentators have analyzed political reform on the world's poorest continent. It is also possible to make substantive judgments about the course of democratization across the almost four dozen countries of sub-Saharan Africa
Learning from Somalia: The Lessons of Armed Humanitarian Intervention
States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In States and Power in Africa , Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective. Herbst's bold contention—that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long bef…
The creation and matintenance of national boundaries in Africa
A paradox is central to the nature of political boundaries in Africa: there is widespread agreement that the boundaries are arbitrary, yet the vast majority of them have remained virtually untouched since the late 1800s, when they were first demarcated. This article argues that, contrary to current theories, the present boundary system represents a rational response by both the colonialists and the present-day African leaders to the constraints i…
War and the State in Africa
African Militaries and Rebellion: The Political Economy of Threat and Combat Effectiveness
War in Africa has recently attracted significant attention because the continent seems more prone to conflict than others and because any disruption in security is especially threatening to populations, like those in most of Africa, where people are already living at the margins. A growing and productive literature has emerged focussing on the motivations of rebels during these wars. Important econometric work has attempted to explain the economi…
The Relationship between Political and Economic Reform in Africa
More than thirty African countries are now attempting simultaneously to liberalize their political systems and reinvigorate their economies with stabilization and structural adjustment programs. The classic question of the ability of democratic forms of government to sustain economic reform has therefore taken on new urgency in sub-Saharan Africa. However, analyses of the relationship between regime type and economic management have not been very…
Responding to State Failure in Africa
Learning from Somalia
The structural adjustment of politics in Africa
Migration, the Politics of Protest, and State Consolidation in Africa
Journal Article MIGRATION, THE POLITICS OF PROTEST, AND STATE CONSOLIDATION IN AFRICA Get access JEFFREY HERBST JEFFREY HERBST Jeffrey Herbst is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. He is grateful to Bifuko Baharanyia, Henry Bienen, Mark Gersovitz, Richard Hodder-Williams, Peter Johnson and Robert Tignor for their helpful comments Search for other works by this author on: Ox…
Political Liberalization in Africa after Ten Years
It has now been over ten years since the initial protests that led to the unprecedented turnover of leaders in Africa in free and fair elections. Enough time has passed to review how well scholarly commentators have analyzed political reform on the world's poorest continent. It is also possible to make substantive judgments about the course of democratization across the almost four dozen countries of sub-Saharan Africa
Responding to State Failure in Africa
January 01 1997 Responding to State Failure in Africa Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton Universit…
Somalia and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention
Theories of International Cooperation: The Case of the Lomé Convention
The Lomé Convention between the European Economic Community and a number of third world nations has not lived up to expectations, but it remains an important case study of international cooperation. This article, which is based on 48 interviews conducted in Brussels and other EEC capitals, compares the evolution and workings of the Lomé Convention to three theories of international cooperation which stress interdependence, negotiations, or depend…
Political Impediments to Economic Rationality: Explaining Zimbabwe's Failure to Reform its Public Sector
After Many years of exhortations, it is now widely claimed that African governments are beginning to implement the reforms needed to fundamentally alter their economies.1 Zimbabwe, after achieving independence 15 years later than most of the continent, has been singled out as a country that immdiately recognised the lessons of African economic failures and therefore adopted more rational policies.2 However, efforts to rationalise the public secto…
Prospects for Revolution in South Africa
Journal Article Prospects for Revolution in South Africa Get access Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst JEFFREY HERBST is an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He has written on political and security affairs in Southern Africa and was also a research associate at the University of Zimbabwe. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 103, I…
Is Nigeria a viable state
United States Foreign Policy towards Africa: Incrementalism, Crisis and Change, by Peter J. Schraeder
Third World Communism in Crisis: The Fall of Afro-Marxism
Third World Communism in CrisisThe Fall of Afro-Marxism Jeffrey Herbst (bio) In December 1989, officials in the avowedly Marxist state of Benin were about to unveil a new bronze statue of Lenin. Suddenly, President Ahmed Kérékou announced that Marxism-Leninism, the country's ideology since it had been imposed in 1974, was being revoked. Within a few hours of the president's announcement, several hundred demonstrators attacked the new Lenin statue…
Mbeki's South Africa
IN THE 11 years since it abandoned white minority rule, South Africa has become two different countries. The first is a dramatic success story: once wracked by violence and synonymous with human rights abuses, this South Africa now boasts a stable political system based on a liberal constitution defended by honest courts. It holds regular, free, and fair elections, and the ruling National Congress (ANc) enjoys enormous support. This South Africa …
Responding to State Failure in Africa
October 01 1997 Responding to State Failure in Africa Richard Joseph, Richard Joseph Richard Joseph, the Asa G. Candler Professor of Political Science at Emory University, was a Visiting Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995-97. He is a former fellow for African Governance at the Carter Center at Emory, and is currently writing a book on armed conflict and peacemaking in Liberia. Search for other work…
Adjustment Alternatives and Alternatives to Adjustment
Racial reconciliation in southern Africa
Racial reconciliation in southern Africa Get access Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 65, Issue 1, January 1988, Pages 43–54, https://doi.org/10.2307/2620981 Published: 01 January 1988
Populist demands and government resources in the New South Africa
Societal Demands and Government Choices: Agricultural Producer Price Policy in Zimbabwe
Recent studies of Africa's continuing agrarian crisis have focused on the insufficient prices governments pay farmers as one of the key causes of declining food production. However, in Zimbabwe agricultural producer prices have, in general, provided positive incentives for agricultural production, and government has avoided the disastrous trap of a cheap food that has destroyed the agrarian base of so many other countries. The World Bank, for ins…
Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective
Journal Article Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective Get access Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective by Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 1997. 328 pp. Cloth, $59.95; paper, $19.95. Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst Princeton University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Po…
Theories of International Cooperation: The Case of the Lomé Convention
The Lomé Convention between the European Economic Community and a number of third world nations has not lived up to expectations, but it remains an important case study of international cooperation. This article, which is based on 48 interviews conducted in Brussels and other EEC capitals, compares the evolution and workings of the Lomé Convention to three theories of international cooperation which stress interdependence, negotiations, or depend…
Societal Demands and Government Choices: Agricultural Producer Price Policy in Zimbabwe
Recent studies of Africa's continuing agrarian crisis have focused on the insufficient prices governments pay farmers as one of the key causes of declining food production. However, in Zimbabwe agricultural producer prices have, in general, provided positive incentives for agricultural production, and government has avoided the disastrous trap of a cheap food that has destroyed the agrarian base of so many other countries. The World Bank, for ins…
Prospects for Revolution in South Africa
Journal Article Prospects for Revolution in South Africa Get access Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst JEFFREY HERBST is an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. He has written on political and security affairs in Southern Africa and was also a research associate at the University of Zimbabwe. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 103, I…
Racial reconciliation in southern Africa
Racial reconciliation in southern Africa Get access Jeffrey Herbst Jeffrey Herbst Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 65, Issue 1, January 1988, Pages 43–54, https://doi.org/10.2307/2620981 Published: 01 January 1988
The creation and matintenance of national boundaries in Africa
A paradox is central to the nature of political boundaries in Africa: there is widespread agreement that the boundaries are arbitrary, yet the vast majority of them have remained virtually untouched since the late 1800s, when they were first demarcated. This article argues that, contrary to current theories, the present boundary system represents a rational response by both the colonialists and the present-day African leaders to the constraints i…
Political Impediments to Economic Rationality: Explaining Zimbabwe's Failure to Reform its Public Sector
After Many years of exhortations, it is now widely claimed that African governments are beginning to implement the reforms needed to fundamentally alter their economies.1 Zimbabwe, after achieving independence 15 years later than most of the continent, has been singled out as a country that immdiately recognised the lessons of African economic failures and therefore adopted more rational policies.2 However, efforts to rationalise the public secto…
State Politics in Zimbabwe
The structural adjustment of politics in Africa
War and the State in Africa
Third World Communism in Crisis: The Fall of Afro-Marxism
Third World Communism in CrisisThe Fall of Afro-Marxism Jeffrey Herbst (bio) In December 1989, officials in the avowedly Marxist state of Benin were about to unveil a new bronze statue of Lenin. Suddenly, President Ahmed Kérékou announced that Marxism-Leninism, the country's ideology since it had been imposed in 1974, was being revoked. Within a few hours of the president's announcement, several hundred demonstrators attacked the new Lenin statue…
Migration, the Politics of Protest, and State Consolidation in Africa
Journal Article MIGRATION, THE POLITICS OF PROTEST, AND STATE CONSOLIDATION IN AFRICA Get access JEFFREY HERBST JEFFREY HERBST Jeffrey Herbst is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. He is grateful to Bifuko Baharanyia, Henry Bienen, Mark Gersovitz, Richard Hodder-Williams, Peter Johnson and Robert Tignor for their helpful comments Search for other works by this author on: Ox…
State Politics in Zimbabwe
The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982–1991
Economic reform was the most pressing question for African and other Third World countries during the 1980s, and it will continue to dominate their public policy agendas. In this examination of the political economy of adjustment in Ghana, Jeffrey Herbst describes the causes of Ghana's dramatic economic decline and reviews the politics of reform that began in 1982. Ghana was one of the first African countries to adopt a comprehensive reform progr…
The Politics of Reform in Ghana 1982-1991
U.S. Economic Policy toward Africa
The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982-1991
The Third World and South Africa: Post-Apartheid Challenges
Introduction The Third World and South Africa: Interests, Strategies, and Change Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria and Zambia Asia: India and Taiwan Latin America: Brazil The Middle East: The Arab States, Iran, and the PLO Post-Apartheid Challenges Selected Bibliography Index
Activities and Appointments
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Populist demands and government resources in the New South Africa
Reforming Africa's Estranged States
Creating a New South Africa
The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982-1991
Adjustment Alternatives and Alternatives to Adjustment
United States Foreign Policy towards Africa: Incrementalism, Crisis and Change, by Peter J. Schraeder
Free at Last? U. S. Policy toward Africa and the End of the Cold War
Political science (58 works) · Law (42 works) · Politics (40 works) · Economics (39 works) · Development economics (31 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Political economy (29 works) · Law (21 works) · International Development and Aid (18 works) · Geography (13 works)