Routledge Handbook of African Politics

Abstract

Routledge Handbook of African Politics, edited by Nic Cheeseman, David M. Anderson, and Andrea Scheibler. London and New York: Routledge, 2013. xv + 437 pp. ISBN 9780415573788 (hardback), 9780203070680 (e-book). £140This collection of 31 essays represents an ambitious project not only to survey current trends in political research, but also to suggest new opportunities and directions for research on and in sub-Saharan Africa. In their introduction, the editors set out the aims of the Handbook, to analyse how far developments in the available data, as well as trends in politics and political science more widely, have the potential to transform the kind of research and analysis that can be brought to bear on African states.The editors argue that, lacking the kind of comparative data, especially quantitative data, available for other continents, political research in Africa has tended to borrow methods the disciplines of history and anthropology. Consequently, studies have tended to be qualitative in nature and closely focused on local areas and issues. Although the quality of such research has been high, the ability to draw comparisons between different countries, or to draw conclusions at a regional level, has been limited. This situation is changing, with greater depth and availability of comparable data across Africa, for example in World Bank datasets or the Afrobarometer project. In the chapters in this Handbook, the contributors reflect on current research across sub-Saharan African countries, commenting on conclusions that can be drawn at a regional level and identifying new challenges for political research.The Handbook is divided into six parts: the politics of the state; the politics of identity; the politics of conflict; democracy and electoral politics; political economy and development; and international relations. Each part contains five short chapters (six for politics of the state), and every chapter ends with a short bibliography to provide further reading on the development of ideas and current research. Although it's likely that most readers will probably just select the most relevant chapter or chapters for their purposes, the Handbook is designed so that all the chapters in a part complement each other, and authors frequently refer to other contributions within the Handbook.In general, chapters tend to focus at the level of the state, and analysis of the nature, functions and behaviour of states and elite politics forms a large part of the discussion. As might be expected, chapters address the characterisation of African states as weak or corrupt, with terms such as 'big man', 'clientalism', and 'neopatrimonialism' used in many places. In this context, Gerdo Erdmann's chapter, 'Neopatrimonialism and political regimes', provides an excellent and critical examination of the limitations and potential use of the term in understanding politics on the continent. Elsewhere, this theme is taken by Goran Hyden's contribution, 'The economy of affection', and by Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan's 'The informal practices of civil servants'. Both chapters describe the challenges facing state actors in negotiating between state and non-state spheres of influence. These, and other, chapters show how, at a local level, 'the state' can find itself the junior partner in a network of local interests, NGOs and private companies.An additional dimension to these challenges comes through the politics of identity, in particular claims made for and by different ethnic groups within a state. The chapters addressing ethnicity largely challenge the characterisation of African politics as directed by 'big men' cynically exploiting ethnic identity to maintain power. While examples can be found of political leaders using ethnicity to divide support for opposition parties, as Peter Geschiere describes happening in Cameroon, political pressure is often directed from the ground up rather than being manipulated by elites. …