States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. By Jeffrey Herbst. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. 280p. $55.00 cloth, $17.95 paper

Donald Rothchild

American Political Science Review, 2001, vol. 95, issue 1, 237-238

Abstract: In this important reappraisal of Africa's political evolution over an extended period, Jeffrey Herbst engages in a dialogue with scholars of comparative and African politics on the causes of state weakness and the possibilities for state redesign. Herbst argues that state consolidation in Africa has been complicated by the problem of extending authority over its distant territories. Low population densities have been a long-standing obstacle encountered by precolonial, colonial, and independent African rulers alike. It has proven expensive for leaders at the political center to project power over peoples and territories far from the capital city. As a result, rural areas have been neglected, particularly by colonial regimes, and urban areas have been favored in terms of public services and amenities.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:95:y:2001:i:01:p:237-238_61

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in American Political Science Review from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().