Working Paper No. 3. Economic and Political Foundations of State-Making in Africa: understanding state reconstruction.
Abstract
The working paper examines the processes and challenges of state reconstruction in Uganda and Rwanda and the challenge posed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in light of the experience of the stable state in Tanzania. The comparative study found clear-cut evidence that inclusiveness is not equivalent to formal democracy. Competitive party politics and liberal democratic arrangements are particularly difficult to implement in contexts of institutional multiplicity, where rival rule systems serve as the basis to organise within formal democratic procedures. The experiences of state building through limited competitive politics in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, not to mention the historical experience of almost every one of the world's now developed countries, cast considerable doubt over propositions that state-making can best be pursued through modern liberal democracy.
Citation
Hesselbein, G. Working Paper No. 3. Economic and Political Foundations of State-Making in Africa: understanding state reconstruction. (2006) 41 pp.
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