POLITICS, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, AND GLOBALIZATION Sheldon Gellar. Democracy in Senegal: Analytics in Africa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. xix + 207 pp. Map. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth. $24.95. Paper. In Democracy in Senegal, Sheldon Gellar proposes what he calls Tocquevillian analytics as an alternative methodology to predominantly ahistorical and state-centered approach used by many scholars studying democratization processes in today. An expert on Senegal, Gellar was intrigued by extent to which de Tocqueville's ideas about freedom of association and art of association as bulwarks against tyranny applied to Francophone in general and to Senegal in particular. Gellar particularly appreciates pertinence of Tocqueville's analysis of role of laws, religion, language, culture, and mores in transition from aristocratic to democratic societies. The inquiry begins with some key questions. If is part of modern democratic revolution that began with American and French Revolutions, then why has democracy had such a problem taking hold in Africa? What are prospects for democracy? How should one study democracy in Africa? In marked contrast to ideas of contemporary political scientists (such as Samuel Huntington), Gellar argues that analytics, with emphasis on liberty, equality, popular sovereignty, and self-governance, provides a powerful and comprehensive tool for analyzing process of democratization-and failure of nation-state model-in Africa. In Democracy in America, Tocqueville identifies mores (habits of heart and mind), laws (institutional arrangements), and environmental factors (geography and climate) as diree main factors shaping American democracy. Gellar applies these concepts to study of democracy in and in Senegal, arguing that precolonial history, political institutions, and social structures still affect African attitudes toward government, other ethnic groups and communities, and institutional arrangements in postcolonial era. He notes that precolonial constitutional norms, recognizing representatives of different groups in society, frequently no longer functioned after independence: At independence, leaders inherited colonial state structures and adopted liberal Western constitutions based on European models with little consultation with people. One-party states, military regimes, and personal dictatorships violated political and civil rights guaranteed by their country's constitution and gave their people little say in making laws and rules governing their lives (8). Herein, argues Gellar, lies main explanation for dysfunction of democracy in today. Much as Basil Davidson does in The Black Man's Burden (James Currey, 1992), Gellar identifies design of African nation-state itself as principal cause of such dysfunction. Gellar concludes that because colonialism imposed a highly centralized and autocratic state on African peoples under its jurisdiction, and because boundaries drawn up by colonizer became framework for new African nation-states at independence, the legacy of nation-state has been one of major obstacles to building viable democratic societies in post-colonial Africa (172). …