Decentralization As Political Strategy In West Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6245341 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Boone (0000-0001-5324-7814, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 355-380 |
| Publication date | 2003-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4140 • E-ISSN: 1552-3829 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010414003251173 |
| OpenAlex | W2098174955 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 79 |
| References cited | 58 |
Administrative and political decentralization have emerged as high developmental priorities in Africa and elsewhere. Although the possible benefits of such reforms have been well theorized, the actual politics of decentralization are not well understood. Often there are large gaps between reform rhetoric and governments'real commitment to decentralization. And often legal changes have not produced decentralization's supposed political and administrative benefits. These dynamics have been especially clear in rural Africa, where a decade of decentralizing reforms has produced generally disappointing results. When do regimes pursue state-building strategies that involve real devolution of political and administrative prerogative? This article addresses this question and proposes an answer for rural West Africa. The author employs a political economy approach to propose a model of regional variation in the political capacities and interests of rural societies and rural notables and argues that these differences shape the institution-building strategies governments choose trying to entrench their power
Decentralization · Development economics · Devolution (biology · Economic system · Economics · Institution · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Prerogative · Rhetoric · Sociology · State (computer science · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Public Administration
Environmental Governance
The Politics of Distributing Social Transfers
State Building in Sub-Saharan Africa
Decentralization and Income Inequality in a Panel and Cross‐Section of Countries
Measuring and explaining fiscal de/centralization
“Staged Dilemma”
Religion, Violence, and Local Power-Sharing in Nigeria
Militarization, factionalism and political transitions
Strategy, Structure, and the Administration of Complex Geographies
The Rise of Local Politics
Social Cohesion as Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic and Beyond
Devolution is only for development’? Decentralization and elite vulnerability on the Kenyan coast
Territorial Découpage and Issues of ‘Autochthony’ in Former Katanga Province, the Democratic Republic of Congo
Scaling Down
The Origins of Regional Autonomy in Indonesia
Decentralization and development in Ghana's Fourth Republic
Advancing Comparative Climate Change Politics
Playing the immigration card
A show of numbers’
Local Perspectives on the ‘Neutrality’ of Traditional Authorities in Malawi, South Africa and Uganda
We Did Many Projects Together’
Coordinating forest tenure reform
Decentralization and welfare
The politics of urban governance in sub-Saharan Africa
Tomatoes, Decentralization, and Environmental Management in Brong Ahafo, Ghana
The Politics of Decentralisation in Mali
Emplacing Funsi
Comparing Forest Decentralization and Local Institutional Change in Bolivia, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda
Decentralization, Institutional Ambiguity, and Mineral Resource Conflict in Mindanao, Philippines
Does Commercialization Undermine the Benefits of Decentralization for Local Services Provision? Evidence from Mexico’s Urban Water and Sanitation Sector
Can Developing Countries Both Decentralize and Depoliticize Urban Water Services? Evaluating the Legacy of the 1990s Reform Wave
Municipal politics and forest governance
Politics, development and the instrumentalisation of (de)centralisation in Sierra Leone
Ambivalent outcomes of statebuilding
Institutional factors affecting biophysical outcomes in forest management
Property Rights and Forest Commons
The Incoherence of Institutional Reform
The Complex Imprint of Foreign Rule
Climate-smart cocoa governance risks entrenching old hegemonies in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
Migration, Urbanization, and Political Power in Sub-Saharan Africa
Explaining Variation in Levels of Public (Dis)trust in Traditional Leaders
Decentralization and the persistence of centralized power in Liberia
The Political Economy of Decentralization Reforms
Party Systems and Decentralization in Africa
Unusual Bedfellows? PRI-PVEM Electoral Alliances in Mexican Legislative Elections
Local ruling elites and historical origin of modern state capacity
Decentralization Without Democracy
Local Order, Policing, and Bribes
Perverse Complementarity
A Signaling Theory of Distributive Policy Choice
Territorial Politics and the Reach of the State
The Logic of De Facto Power and Local Education Spending
Behavioral Determinants of Citizen Involvement
Outspoken Insiders
Shared Space
Citizen political knowledge and accountability
Failure or success? Regime fragmentation in the context of decentralization reform in Ukraine
Decentralization and political opposition in contemporary Africa
Mayoral elections and partisan dynamics in Africa’s local governments
Formal versus traditional institutions
From Local Strongman to Facilitator
Democracy, decentralization, and district proliferation
The political opportunities of urban decentralisation
Global Urban Policymaking in Africa
The Interface between Tradition and Modernity
Uneven Access to Local Power
Decentralisation in Kenya
Devolution Plan 2000
Political Structure and the Limits of Recognition and Representation in Ghana
Property, Authority and Citizenship
Land Grabbing, the State and Chiefs
The Political Economy of the Creation of Districts in Ghana
Support or subvert? Assessing devolution's effect on central power during Kenya's 2017 presidential rerun
Farmer-herder relations, land governance and the national conflict in Mali
Historicizing the power of civil society
Innovating Imihigo
Minding the local slot
Decentralization and the Local Developmental State
Introduction
The Microfoundations of macrosociology
Corruption and state politics in Sierra Leone
Institutions and Social Conflict
The Rational Peasant
The Politics of Reform in Ghana, 1982–1991
Fathers Work for Their Sons
Lineages of the Absolutist State
Principles of Group Solidarity
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance
Rural Development in Tropical Africa
The Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism
After the Deluge
On the Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
The Rebel's Dilemma
Of Rule and Revenue
Hausaland Divided
Rationality and revolution
In a Moment of Enthusiasm
After the Deluge
In a Moment of Enthusiasm
Africa 30 Years On
Rural Interests and the Making of Modern African States
Markets and States in Tropical Africa
Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe
Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe
Regional Modes of Production and Patterns of State Formation in Western Europe
Agrarian revolution
The Social Origins of Ivoirian Exceptionalism
Décentralisation par le Bas et Participation Clientéliste au Bénin
La Décentralisation comme Ambition Multiple
Reining in the Marabouts? Democratization and Local Governance in Senegal
Rethinking Third World Politics
Democratizing a (Quasi) Democracy
The Microfoundations of Macrosociology
L'État et les municipalités en Côte d'ivoire
The Myth of the Expanding Centre -Politics in the Ivory Coast
Peasant Politicisation and Economic Recuperation in Ghana
Living in the past
Communities of Grain
Saints and Politicians
The Dynamic Nature of Citizenship and Participation
Peasants and Rural Social Protest in Africa
Politics, Bureaucracy and Rural Development in Senegal
Democracy and realism
Decentralisation, participation and accountability in Sahelian forestry
Impediments to Collective Action in a Small Community
Senegal's 'Patrimonial Democrats
The rational peasant
| Unique citing works | 79 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,76 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 79 |