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Aims and Scope
The problem
There is growing recognition that in low-income Africa the way power is exercised needs to change if social progress and widespread poverty reduction are to be achieved. This is supported by a well established general analysis of African political systems which points to the importance of informal power and patronage relationships. Generic analysis of this sort shows why the prevailing ways of exercising power tend to have anti-developmental consequences. This is an essential starting-point. But it is of limited use in identifying alternatives for policy and practice.
We know much less than we should about the forms that more developmental governance might assume, and how they might emerge. This is partly because we rely on standards of good governance that are insensitive to context and history. It is also because research, too, has been focused on generic issues. Researchers have not explored systematically why apparently similar patronage-oriented arrangements have yielded different outcomes in different times and places. Consequently, we don't know which forms of governance, at national or local levels, might be "good enough" in the sense that they allow key developmental problems to be solved and progress to be made.
A hypothesis
This type of knowledge is essential because, historically, developmental states and societies have always emerged in a step-wise fashion out of patronage-based systems, drawing strength from locally rooted traditions and communities of understanding. Within African experience, power relationships and their outcomes have varied significantly across places, periods and institutional spheres. We hypothesise that there is scope for governance reforms that work "with the grain" of African societies, in such a way that they mitigate the most negative consequences of prevailing practices while harnessing otherwise under-recognised capacities for collective problem-solving.
The Power and Politics in Africa programme is undertaking what we believe to be the first systematic study of these issues.
The evidence base
A particular feature of the programme is its focus on power and politics in Africa. Comparative international experience has helped to lead us to our research problem, and we intend to continue to draw on non-African evidence, especially from low-income Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. However, non-African experience has major limitations when it comes to charting a way forward for political institutionalisation in Africa, tending to suggest lists of "missing" elements, rather than suggesting how to build on the institutional resources that African societies possess. Therefore, we are proceeding primarily on the basis of comparative analysis in African countries.
We shall be carrying out intensive field studies and surveys in a sample of sub-Saharan African countries to capture a range of experiences, past and present. The research will be designed to distinguish governance arrangements that are solving problems for poor people, or removing barriers to general progress, and those that are failing to do so in different degrees.
The details of the research design were agreed at the end of a 12-month phase of consultation and debate intended to identify the most researchable experiences and conceptualise in a rigorous way the relevant variations. The conclusions of the design phase are detailed elsewhere on this website.
What will come out of the research?
Over the five years of the programme, we aim to generate:
- High-level generalisations about "what works" and what doesn't in terms of typical institutional variables.
- Conclusions about the implications of these findings for international policy frameworks (Good Governance, the Millennium Development Goals, NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism, Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, etc.).
- Outcomes from five years of engagement with key thinkers and activists in Africa and globally about what the findings of the research mean for the future of leadership and the politics on the continent.
Latest Downloads
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APPP Working Paper 10, Local governance and public goods in Niger, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, July 2010 Eng More Info |
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APPP Working Paper 12, Developmental patrimonialism? The case of Malawi by Cammack, Kelsall with Booth, Jul 2010 Eng More Info |
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APPP Working paper 10, Gouvernance locale et biens publics au Niger, par Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Juillet 2010 Fr More Info |
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APPP Working Paper 11, Local Governance and public goods in Malawi by Diana Cammack and Edge Kanyongolo, July 2010 Eng More Info |
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