The Politics Of Patronage In Africa

This is a survey of the influence of political factors on economic performance throughout Africa with case studies drawn from Ghana, Zambia and Uganda. It is a comparative study of the difficulties in developing a private enterprise economy.

Patronage Politics Divides Us is the culmination of a research project that forms part of MISTRA's first suite of eight priority research projects. The research explores the relationship between patronage, poverty, and inequality with a particular focus on its impact on the conduct of local politics. The overall aim of the study was to explore the possibility of constituting public institutions in a manner that enables them to become legitimate arbiters between the various interests, rather than as instruments that are captured by contending interest groups for their own accumulation. Most importantly, this study was necessitated by the realization that postapartheid patronage politics has not received sufficient scholarly attention. The report is a profile of socioeconomic life in South Africa's various communities as experienced not only by locals but also by foreign-born residents. The findings provide a window on relationships between councilors, business interests, and local party organizations.

Patronage Politics Divides Us: A Study of Poverty, Patronage and Inequality in South Africa explores the relationship between patronage, poverty, and inequality with a particular focus on its impact on the conduct of local politics. The overall aim of the study was to explore the possibility of constituting public institutions in a manner that enables them to become legitimate arbiters between the various interests, rather than as instruments that are captured by contending interest groups for their own accumulation. Most importantly, this study was necessitated by the realisation that post-apartheid patronage politics has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This research study aims to help fill that gap, especially by contributing empirical research to the subject. The report goes beyond answering the primary questions of the study: it is a profile of socio economic life in South Africas various communities as experienced not only by locals, but also by foreign-born residents. The findings provide a window on relationships between councillors, business interests, and local party organisations.

One common demand in the 2011 uprisings in the MENA region was the call for ‘freedom, dignity, and social justice.’ Citizens rallied against corruption and clientelism, which for many protesters were deeply linked to political tyranny. This book takes the phenomenon of the 2011 uprisings as a point of departure for reassessing clientelism and patronage across the entire MENA region. Using case studies covering Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies, it looks at how the relationships within and between clientelist and patronage networks changed before 2011. The book assesses how these changes contributed to the destabilization of the established political and social order, and how they affected less visible political processes. It then turns to look at how the political transformations since 2011 have in turn reconfigured these networks in terms of strategies and dynamics, and concomitantly, what implications this has had for the inclusion or exclusion of new actors. Are specific networks expanding or shrinking in the post-2011 contexts? Do these networks reproduce established forms of patron-client relations or do they translate into new modes and mechanisms? As the first book to systematically discuss clientelism, patronage and corruption against the background of the 2011 uprisings, it will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle Eastern Studies. The book also addresses major debates in comparative politics and political sociology by offering ‘networks of dependency’ as an interdisciplinary conceptual approach that can ‘travel’ across place and time.

Reno (political science, Florida International U.) examines alternative, usually clandestine, economic systems, arguing that such phenomena as tax evasion, illicit production, smuggling, and protection rackets have become widespread and integral to building political authority in parts of Africa. He also clarifies the limitations of the liberalizing reforms of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by detailing how weak- state and warlord political economies restrict and manipulate bank and IMF prescriptions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The author provides extra coverage of both North and South Africa and of such key issues as debt, the AIDS epidemic, the position of women and the politics of patronage."--BOOK JACKET.