{"title":"Oxford Studies In African Politics And International Relations","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the complex dynamics shaping Africa's political landscape with this essential series. From international relations to domestic policy, explore cutting-edge research and gain vital insights into the continent's evolving role.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rural-democracy-book-robin-harding-9780198851073","title":"Rural Democracy","description":"How have African rulers responded to the introduction of democratic electoral competition? Despite the broadly negative picture painted by the prevailing focus on electoral fraud, clientelism, and ethnic conflict, the book argues that the full story is somewhat more promising. While these unfortunate practices may be widespread, African rulers also seek to win votes through the provision and distribution of public goods and services. The author's central argument is that in predominantly rural countries the introduction of competitive elections leads governments to implement pro-rural policies, in order to win the votes of the rural majority. As a result, across much of Africa the benefits of democratic electoral competition have accrued primarily in terms of rural development. This broad claim is supported by cross-national evidence, both from public opinion surveys and from individual level data on health and education outcomes. The argument's core assumptions about voting behavior are supported with quantitative evidence from Ghana, and qualitative historical evidence from Botswana presents further evidence for the underlying theoretical mechanism. Taken together, this body of evidence provides reasons to be optimistic about the operation of electoral accountability in Africa. African governments are responding to the accountability structures provided by electoral competition; in that sense, democracy in Africa is working.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The series focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735366082833,"sku":"NGR9780198851073","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51243723718929,"sku":"NIN9780198851073","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198851073.jpg?v=1751070168"},{"product_id":"multiethnic-democracy-book-jeremy-horowitz-9780198852735","title":"Multiethnic Democracy","description":"Who are the swing voters in multiethnic democracies? How much effort do parties invest in courting the swing relative to mobilizing supporters in their core ethnic bases? And how does this balance affect the policies leaders propose - and implement - if elected?   This book examines the logic of electoral competition and policymaking in the context of Kenya's emerging multiparty democracy. Using data on voters, campaigns, and policy outcomes, it shows that the pursuit of the swing encourages presidential candidates to offer broad, inclusive promises and for election winners to opt for universal policies that share benefits widely. In doing so, it challenges the view - common to both popular accounts and scholarly work - that where ethnicity is politically salient, multiparty competition inevitably leads parties to focus their electoral efforts on mobilizing narrow ethnic factions and to concentrate rewards on ethnic clientele.    Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.   Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics, University of Bristol; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346414604561,"sku":"CIN0198852738G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000032330001,"sku":"NIN9780198852735","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198852738.jpg?v=1751258813"},{"product_id":"wealth-power-and-authoritarian-institutions-book-michaela-collord-9780192855183","title":"Wealth, Power, and Authoritarian Institutions","description":"Through an analysis of the recent political history of Tanzania and Uganda, Wealth, Power, and Authoritarian Institutions offers a novel explanation of why authoritarian parties and legislatures vary in strength, and why this variation matters. Michaela Collord elaborates a view of authoritarian political institutions as both reflecting and magnifying elite power dynamics. While there are many sources of elite power, the book centres on material power. It outlines how diverse trajectories of state-led capitalist development engender differing patterns of wealth accumulation and elite contestation across regimes. These differences, in turn, influence institutional landscapes.    Where accumulation is more closely controlled by state and party leaders, as was true in Tanzania until economic liberalization in the 1980s, rival factions remain subdued. Ruling parties can then consolidate relatively strong institutional structures, and parliament remains marginal. Conversely, where a class of private wealth accumulators expands, as occurred in Tanzania after the 1980s and in Uganda after the National Resistance Movement took power in 1986, rival factions can more easily form, simultaneously eroding party institutions and encouraging greater legislative strength.    Collord uses this analysis to reassess the significance of a stronger legislature. She considers its influence on distributive politics, both regressive and progressive. She also considers its relation to democratization, particularly in a context of broader liberalizing reforms. The book ultimately encourages a closer examination of how would-be democratic institutions interact with an underlying power distribution, shaping in whose interests they operate.   Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. General Editors Nic Cheeseman, Peace Medie, and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50464924893457,"sku":"NGR9780192855183","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999752098065,"sku":"NIN9780192855183","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192855182.jpg?v=1763480352"},{"product_id":"democratic-backsliding-in-africa-book-leonardo-r-arriola-9780192867322","title":"Democratic Backsliding in Africa?","description":"This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.  Why have most African countries not achieved greater political liberalization? What explains the lack of progress toward the ideals of liberal democracy across the region? This book advances ongoing debates on democratic backsliding with specific reference to Africa. In examining how incumbent leaders in African countries attempt to contain societal pressures for greater democracy, the chapters explain how governments go beyond the standard tools of manipulation, such as electoral fraud and political violence, to keep democracy from unfolding in their countries. The book emphasizes two distinct strategies that governments frequently use to reinforce their hold on power - the legal system and the international system - but which remain overlooked in conventional analyses; it also documents how governments employ the law to limit the scope of action among citizens and civil society activists struggling to expand democratic liberties, including the use of constitutional provisions and the courts. The work further demonstrates how governments use their role in international relations to neutralize pressure from external actors, including sovereigntist claims against foreign intervention and selective implementation of donor-promoted policies. While pro-democracy actors can also employ these legal and international strategies to challenge incumbents, in some cases to prevent democratic backsliding, the book shows why and how incumbents have enjoyed institutional advantages when implementing these strategies through six country case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The series focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50999718510865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999721492753,"sku":"NIN9780192867322","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192867326.jpg?v=1776940564"},{"product_id":"id-wars-in-cote-d-ivoire-book-richard-bangas-9780192870476","title":"ID Wars in Côte d'Ivoire","description":"Identity documents provide rights to citizenship and social inclusion. They can also generate violence and conflicts. This book explores Côte d'Ivoire's 'ID war' as a paradigmatic case of a citizenship crisis, centered on the access to national identity cards and certificates.   Using ethnographic and historical data, it shows how the documentary struggle for citizenship has continued in the post-crisis reconstruction, affecting the new policies of identification and registration based upon biometrics and new technologies. It describes how the latter have been overturned and reframed by the Ivorian society. Focusing on the production and negotiation of legal identities, the book delves into the social life of IDs and biometrics and describes the clandestine world of the 'margouillats', the corrupt brokers of the civil registry, the forms of documentary falsification aimed at taming legal and bureaucratic principles with the requirements of ordinary social life, the hidden practices of state apparatuses of identification and the local machinery of biometric registration, and the self-made censuses and systems of identification used by minorities seeking recognition in the public space. Through these ethnographic descriptions with a specific approach 'from below', the book shows that actual reforms supposed to depoliticize - and in the case of biometric technologies, to de-socialize - identification do not erase its constitutively political dimension. From a comparative perspective, the case of Côte d'Ivoire reveals the unprecedented revenge of the documentary state on the biometric state and encourages us to rethink their dyadic opposition in a more complex triangulation of identification, debt and recognition.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The series focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. General Editors Nic Cheeseman, Peace Medie, and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50999728013585,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999730733329,"sku":"NIN9780192870476","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192870475.jpg?v=1776940693"},{"product_id":"controlling-territory-controlling-voters-book-michael-wahman-9780198872825","title":"Controlling Territory, Controlling Voters","description":"Violence in election campaigns is common across the African continent and beyond. According to some estimations, most African elections contain some degree of violence and most of this violence happens before elections, during the campaign. While campaign violence is a common problem, it affects citizens differently across localities. When violence and intimidation become an integral part of election campaigns in a locality, they become tools of sub-national authoritarianism that may effectively dismantle local democracy.   This book focuses on the political geography of election violence in Africa, building on one important observation: elections in many African countries are highly regional and the support for political parties are rarely nationalized. Wahman argues that in such environments, campaign violence becomes an important tool used by parties to control and regulate access to space.   Building on a wealth of data and extensive fieldwork in Zambia and Malawi, the author uses a combination of electoral geography analysis, constituency-level election violence data collected from local election monitors, focus group interviews, archival material, and individual-level survey data to show how campaign violence in both countries is used as a territorial tool, predominantly within party strongholds.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The series focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. General Editors Nic Cheeseman, Peace Medie, and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51000078500113,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000081842449,"sku":"NIN9780198872825","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52946308301073,"sku":"GOR014663290","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198872828.jpg?v=1750843640"},{"product_id":"electoral-commissions-and-democratization-in-africa-book-nicholas-kerr-9780198895367","title":"Electoral Commissions and Democratization in Africa","description":"Why do some countries hold elections that meet global democratic standards, while other countries do not? Electoral Commissions and Democratization in Africa makes a novel contribution to this question. In a departure from the typical story about the “boring” administrative tasks that electoral commissions carry out and their impact on international observers' assessments of election quality, Kerr aruges that electoral commissions provide valuable information that helps politicians and citizens resolve uncertainties about electoral fraud and administrative irregularities.   Whereas previous research focuses on the institutional design of electoral commissions, this book privileges their actual performance and focuses on two attributes: autonomy and capacity. By serving an informational role, the autonomy and capacity of electoral commissions influences how citizens and elites think about and behave during elections. This includes whether political elites and citizens participate in elections, engage in electoral fraud and violence, accept electoral outcomes, and express confidence in elections. These attitudes and behaviors, in turn, influence whether elections meet democratic standards (election quality) and whether political elites and citizens regard election processes as acceptable (election legitimacy).   This book brings together evidence from public opinion surveys, elite surveys, field research, and cross-national databases to give an unusually rich empirical exploration of the dynamics of elections and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s, with a focused case study of Nigeria. Electoral Commissions and Democratization in Africa will be appealing to scholars and policymakers interested in democratization and elections.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics, University of Bristol; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51000093999377,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000097210641,"sku":"NIN9780198895367","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198895364.jpg?v=1751070217"},{"product_id":"terrorism-politics-and-human-rights-advocacy-book-temitope-oriola-9780198886976","title":"Terrorism, Politics, and Human Rights Advocacy","description":"Terrorism, Politics, and Human Rights Advocacy provides an insider-outsider analysis of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) movement. Formed through a coalition of elite women and middle-class allies to advocate for the rescue of over 200 high school girls from Chibok, Nigeria, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, the movement is a global leader in the 'lives matter' advocacy and a new episode in African women-led rights movements.  Based on data garnered from over 170 research participants, Oriola demonstrates how the #BBOG transformed the Chibok kidnapping into an international cause and a social problem in a sociological sense, inadvertently creating a social problem industry. The volume provides in-depth analyses of the organizational structure, decision-making, repertoire of protest, framing, internal dynamics, and divisions within the #BBOG. Far more than a social media phenomenon, the #BBOG deploys a hybridized communication process which seamlessly combines the time-space compression of social media with the relative fidelity and territoriality of traditional media. State repression against the #BBOG and response of movement actors are also articulated, and the outcomes and impact of the #BBOG explicated.  The BBOG experience speaks to the texture of the African state and its military architecture, party politics, and challenges to human rights advocacy; the findings speak to peace and security in Africa, the war against terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin, perpetuation of social problems, and outcomes of social movements in the postcolony.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics, University of Bristol; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51000132141329,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000135909649,"sku":"NIN9780198886976","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198886977.jpg?v=1750779505"},{"product_id":"political-logic-of-cultural-revival-book-amanda-lea-robinson-9780198909712","title":"The Political Logic of Cultural Revival","description":"Since 2008, prominent members of the Lhomwe ethnic group - a large but politically marginalized community in Malawi - have waged an aggressive campaign to revive their lost cultural heritage, including their language, names, foods, and dances. Existing research has linked such processes of “inventing tradition” to the strategic actions of political elites who benefit from mobilizing members of marginalized ethnic communities for political ends. Yet, because existing research has focused primarily on elite incentives, we know less about how such elite-led efforts translate into lasting cultural change and active political support among regular people.   The Political Logic of Cultural Revival, through an in-depth study of the Lhomwe revival, argues that political elites invest in such revivals when doing so will bear political returns via increased ethnic visibility. Ethnopolitical leaders benefit from having the identity of their group members easily visible to others, because such visibility ties those individuals' fate to that of the larger group. Elite-led cultural revivals serve as a powerful tool for reifying distinctive group characteristics and incentivizing the adoption of related ethnic markers by (1) engendering demand for cultural distinctiveness by stoking group-based pride and (2) supplying the means to achieve it through explicit cultural instruction. Using a plethora of original data sources, The Political Logic of Cultural Revival provides a deep description of the (re)invention of a lost culture, as well as a general theory about how ethnic visibility is related to the practice of ethnic politics.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.   Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51000152228113,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000154947857,"sku":"NIN9780198909712","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198909713.jpg?v=1750694442"},{"product_id":"dams-power-and-the-politics-of-ethiopia-s-renaissance-book-tom-lavers-9780192871213","title":"Dams, Power, and the Politics of Ethiopia's Renaissance","description":"This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.  After more than a decade of construction, Ethiopia is filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a controversial dam with the potential to transform the hydrology and politics of the Nile Basin. The GERD is the culmination of a dam building boom carried out over three decades and a key pillar of the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) efforts to bring about an Ethiopian 'Renaissance'.    Dams, Power, and the Politics of Ethiopia's Renaissance provides a detailed examination of the domestic and international political dynamics that shaped Ethiopia's dam building, drawing on extensive primary research including more than a hundred interviews with politicians, technocrats, consultants, and donors. The authors reflect on the implications of Ethiopia's dam building for broader debates about the role of the state in late development, the dynamics of twenty-first century dam building, and the political economy of renewable energy transitions.    A central argument of the book is that Ethiopia's dam building is symbolic of the successes and failures of the EPRDF's 'developmental state'. On the one hand, this dams' boom enhanced electricity generation capacity, while constituting a key element of the state infrastructure investment that turned Ethiopia into one of the world's fastest growing economies. In contrast, a politically driven decision-making process undermined electricity planning, contributed to an unsustainable debt burden, and, ultimately, failed to provide reliable electricity access to key users. Following the EPRDF's collapse, the subsequent Prosperity Party government has taken steps away from the state-led development model of its predecessor, while labouring towards the final completion of the GERD.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford)","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51080908931345,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51080910045457,"sku":"NIN9780192871213","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192871218.jpg?v=1750737597"},{"product_id":"rural-democracy-book-robin-harding-9780192882059","title":"Rural Democracy","description":"How have African rulers responded to the introduction of democratic electoral competition? Despite the broadly negative picture painted by the prevailing focus on electoral fraud, clientelism, and ethnic conflict, the book argues that the full story is somewhat more promising. While these unfortunate practices may be widespread, African rulers also seek to win votes through the provision and distribution of public goods and services. The author's central argument is that in predominantly rural countries the introduction of competitive elections leads governments to implement pro-rural policies, in order to win the votes of the rural majority. As a result, across much of Africa the benefits of democratic electoral competition have accrued primarily in terms of rural development. This broad claim is supported by cross-national evidence, both from public opinion surveys and from individual level data on health and education outcomes. The argument's core assumptions about voting behavior are supported with quantitative evidence from Ghana, and qualitative historical evidence from Botswana presents further evidence for the underlying theoretical mechanism. Taken together, this body of evidence provides reasons to be optimistic about the operation of electoral accountability in Africa. African governments are responding to the accountability structures provided by electoral competition; in that sense, democracy in Africa is working.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The series focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51146966696209,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51146966991121,"sku":"NIN9780192882059","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192882058.jpg?v=1750940237"},{"product_id":"china-and-african-parliaments-book-innocent-batsani-ncube-9780198922292","title":"China and African Parliaments","description":"China and African Parliaments maps the political controversies surrounding the designing, making, and utilisation of three parliament buildings in Southern Africa that were financed and constructed by the People's Republic of China (China). The book is the first to explore and explain the impact of China's expanding influence in African parliaments.   The financing of African parliament buildings is a new and tangible phenomenon around which to understand China-Africa relations, the evolution of African parliaments, and policy-relevant debates on contemporary representative politics in Africa - topics all tackled in this book. The book draws on eight months of mixed-method fieldwork in Lesotho, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Data was collected through official access to all three buildings, key informant interviews with political and civil society elites, and focus group discussions with a cross-section of ordinary citizens who live and work around the buildings. The book makes two distinct contributions to the China-Africa relations and African parliaments literature. The first contribution is to advance a ground-breaking argument that China's method of donating Parliament buildings to African countries indicates that it is targeting the institution as a site of long-term influence. The second contribution is to make a theoretical and comparative case to utilise discussion of the concept of African legislative institutionalisation through, and in juxtaposition to, these Chinese government-funded parliament buildings.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51595094786321,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51595094884625,"sku":"NGR9780198922292","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52608327385361,"sku":"NIN9780198922292","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198922299.jpg?v=1772275625"},{"product_id":"voice-in-local-development-book-michael-touchton-9780198930594","title":"Voice in Local Development","description":"Many governments in semi-democratic regimes have adopted participatory democratic institutions to promote development and accountability. But limited resources, weak civil society, and a history of authoritarian politics make building subnational democratic institutions daunting. This book addresses several important questions surrounding participatory democratic institutions: do participatory institutions expand accountability, empower citizens, and advance development in these environments? Through administering a survey with embedded experiments surrounding citizens' development policy preferences to over 11,000 respondents in five Kenyan counties, Touchton and Wampler collect parallel qualitative data through participant observation and over 80 elite interviews and find limited evidence for transformative change from Kenyan PB.   This book makes several contributions to advance academic and policy debates on participatory institutions and their impact on governance, accountability, democracy. First, it identifies the vital importance of competitive elections within representative democracy to empower citizens and CSOs as part of the broader causal chain leading to improvements in governance, accountability, and democracy. Next, it develops arguments for how three factors--a new socio-political context, changes to core operational rules, and different configurations of PB actors--interact to influence how PB programs function. Finally, it helps policymakers by redefining the parameters of the types of outcomes that are likely to emerge from new PB programs. This approach will be widely read among policymakers in national and local governments, international organizations, such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID, and international advocacy organizations.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics,  democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and  its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of  Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford)","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51595118575889,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51595119788305,"sku":"NGR9780198930594","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734598185233,"sku":"NIN9780198930594","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198930593.jpg?v=1751132606"},{"product_id":"african-climate-futures-book-carl-death-9780198960744","title":"African Climate Futures","description":"African Climate Futures shows how climate-changed futures are imagined in Africa and by Africans, and how these future visions shape political debates and struggles in the present. Scientific climate scenarios forecast bleak futures, with increased droughts, floods, lethal heatwaves, sea level rises, declining crop yields, and greater exposure to vector-borne diseases. Yet, African climate futures could also encompass energy transitions and socio-economic revolutions, transformed political agency and human subjectivities, and radically reparative more-than-human climate politics.  At the heart of the book is an original and interdisciplinary approach. It studies official climate policy strategies and fictional texts side-by-side, as ecopolitical imaginaries that envision low-carbon, climate-changed futures, and narrate pathways from 'here' to 'there'. It discusses net zero strategies from Ethiopia, The Gambia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe and draws on postcolonial, feminist, and queer theory, arguing that Africanfuturist climate fiction can inspire more radical, reparative, more-than-human ecopolitical imaginaries. These stories can help us to understand the debts we all owe, imagine what reparations might entail, and explore the contours of living convivially alongside more-than-human others in heterotopian, climate-changed futures.   Stories can help explore how we might feel in climate-changed futures and can help us to narrate a path through them. This book uses Africanfuturist climate fiction to inspire new ways of challenging and enriching theoretical debates in global climate change politics, including how we understand the places, temporalities, ecologies, and politics of climate futures. If we want to survive to tell new stories in liveable futures then we need to urgently and radically transform carboniferous capitalism.  Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars  and students working on African politics and International Relations and related  disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political  science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics,  democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political  impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative  political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and  West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies  are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical  implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus  of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region  engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.   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Even as scholars puzzle over this seemingly new phenomenon, scholarship on African politics offers helpful answers.   This book places literature on the post-colonial African state in conversation with literature on modern authoritarianism, using this to frame over ten months of qualitative field research on Uganda's informal security actors - including vigilante groups, local militias, and community police. Based on this research, the book presents an original framework - called 'institutionalized arbitrariness' - to explain how modern authoritarian rulers project arbitrary power even in environments of relatively functional state institutions, checks and balances and the rule of law. In regimes characterized by institutionalized arbitrariness, the state's stochastic assertions and withdrawals of power inject unpredictability into the political relationship between both local authorities and citizens. This arrangement makes it difficult for citizens to predict which authority, if any, will claim jurisdiction in a given scenario, and what rules will apply. This environment of pervasive political unpredictability limits space for collective action and political claim-making, while keeping citizens marginally engaged in the democratic process. The book is grounded in empirical research and literature theorizing the African state, while seeking to inform a broader debate about contemporary forms of authoritarianism, state-building, and state consolidation.   Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest.  Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics, University of Bristol; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.   This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. 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The chapters draw on a variety of methods, including extensive interviews with women candidates, to describe and assess the barriers confronted when women seek to enter politics. The chapters help explain why women remain underrepresented as candidates for office, particularly in countries without gender-based quotas, by emphasizing the impact of financial constraints, fears of violence, and resistance among party leaders. Part II turns to women's experiences as candidates during elections in Kenya and Ghana. One chapter provides an in-depth account of a woman's presidential bid in Kenya, demonstrating how gendered ethnicity undermined her candidacy, and another chapter presents a novel evaluation of the media's coverage of women candidates in Ghana. Part III turns to women as legislators in Namibia, Uganda, and Burkina Faso, asking whether women engage in substantive representation on gendered policy issues once in office. The chapters challenge the assumption that a critical mass of women is necessary or sufficient to achieve substantive representation. Taken together, the book's chapters problematize existing hypotheses regarding women in political power, drawing on understudied countries and variety of empirical methods. By following political pathways from entry to governance, the book uncovers how gendered experiences early in the political process shape what is possible for women once they attain political power.Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. 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The book revisits key theories of the state adopting a detailed empirical approach that studies how state power operates in the everyday. It locates the mutual constitution of state and society in the wide set of scalar processes that articulate how state power structures social life and, simultaneously, creates the conditions of possibility for new openings and social formations. Drawing on five qualitative fieldworks in Ethiopia between 2006 and 2018, the book identify some important challenges that the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has encountered in institutionalising power through the developmental state, an ambitious model of state-mediated economic liberalisation intended to fulfil the broader re-organisation of the Ethiopian state along Ethnic Federalism since 1991. The case studies discuss how policies of resettlement, decentralisation, agriculture commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and industrialisation, inscribed dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in both rural and urban areas. Against these profound transformations beneficiaries casted new meanings to land, place, and work along struggles to secure reproduction. Interrogating the notions of scale and performativity, the book revisits dominant approaches that in African studies read state formation along centre-periphery relations, and ascribe cultural interpretations to the work of state power in the everyday, ultimately contributing to important discussions about authoritarianism and ethnonationalism in contemporary Ethiopia.   Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. 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