Beyond the state police in urban Uganda and Sierra Leone

Bruce Baker

Africa Spectrum, 2006, vol. 41, issue 1, 55-76

Abstract: If the use of violence or the threat of it within society is such a distinguishing mark of sovereignty, then evaluating policing in African states becomes a ready method of evaluating the degree of state sovereignty. Faced with the inability of the state police to provide full security in the urban areas of Uganda and Sierra Leone, there has been a diversification of policing agencies. This paper will explore the range of options available beyond the state police. It examines who is authorising and delivering this multi-choice policing; how effective and accountable the different authorisers/providers of policing are; and what contrasts are there between Uganda and Sierra Leone and why? It finds that on the basis of the state ability to provide law and order and crime control within its territorial boundaries, sovereignty is certainly weak if not fragmented in the two countries. However, for historical reasons the two emerging patterns of sovereignty are not identical.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:gig:afjour:v:41:y:2006:i:1:p:55-76

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/afrika-spectrum

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Africa Spectrum from Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Andreas Mehler ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).