Patronage Is Ever Present Feature Of African Politics Essay

The first theme of this book is Plunkitt’s use of patronage. He openly discusses quid pro quo: he gives people jobs, opportunities, and welfare services in exchange for their political allegiance. For example, he talks about giving young men opportunities to play in the baseball club or sing in the glee club. In exchange, they vote the way he tells them to. Plunkitt also supports his voters in other

Instead of focusing on diversifying, the leaders of the country focus on gaining power and standing in the government. “Nigeria’s most daunting challenge lies in overcoming the severe divisions among its competing religious and ethnic groups” . Moreover, once they gain it, their problems do not end, since they must look over their back, never knowing how long they will hold on to the little power they have. Meanwhile, the common person suffers, as he is neglected by his government and must survive on his own. “The standard of living declined even further than before and external debts increased.” This neglect of the common man bodes ill for the government, as it is the common man who votes in the polls. However, the vote does very little, since corruption is rampant in Nigeria.

Europe and Africa have been linked together in evaluating the state formation process. Both regions have similarities, strengths, weaknesses, and room for improvement. To this day both regions are far from perfect. Some light can be shed on this subject, by evaluating Europe and Africa’s state formation process, evaluating what party benefits, and briefly explaining two economic consequences of European colonialism in Africa.

Voters are often rewarded with patronage jobs. However, patronage can result in poorer service to the

During the late Republic, Rome’s society consists of highly stratified class of people. The noble families, comes from the Senatorial ranks. These influential families have the ability to wage war or not. Hence, the Patron-Client system evolved, wherein the wealthy man (Patron) binds a man in agreement (client) in exchange of gain for future support. However, when this Patron-Client

Patronage can best be defined as the power to control appointments of a position in the office which allows individuals to be selected on the basis of favoritism, nepotism, and financial backing instead of merit. For decades, the Spoils System, used the value of patronage as a way to reward those individuals who continued to support them through out their campaign. Eventually, individuals who showed their support and commitment to a candidate during their campaign began to expect that a position would be offered to them upon their candidate winning the presidency. This value of patronage had been consistently displayed by every President up until Abraham Lincoln stepped into office, as he did not favor this system of preferential treatment (Naff et al., 2014). In comparison patronage is displayed quite differently in the Civil Service System. Although the value of patronage does exist, it is a lot more limited in this system. For example, no more than ten percent of senior executive servants can be politically appointed, where as forty five percent of positions are reserved for career officials (Naff et al., 2014). Although positions that are appointed most often are filled by an individual who shares the same party affiliation as the President, these appointments are often needed. In the Civil Service System, Presidents appoint individuals whom they believe will loyally serve them, advocate on their behalf, and truly enhance their ability to govern

Imperialism in Ghana: British Footprints on African Soil The “Scramble for Africa” has undoubtedly left Africa scrambled up even decades after the continent had been fully decolonized. Ghana, especially, was once a thriving empire in Africa. In terms of economic development and civilian health, the region was right on par with all other global regions. However, as European colonizers began to exploit African states, the structure of its economy was altered to one that operated for the sole benefit of the Industrial Revolution.

The Pan-African significance of the Obama administration, Obama the offspring of a Kenyan engulfed in a bi-racial reality (thus rendering him sensitive to multiculturalism) who fulfills the dream of an oppressed people, has been the perceived unification of both the African continent and the diaspora. However, the term Pan-Africanism comes to stir strong feedback because there is no consensual agreement on what it is. W.E.B. DuBois, in the 1930s, defined Pan-Africanism as a movement aimed at an intellectual understanding and cooperation among all groups of African descent in order to bring about "the industrial and spiritual emancipation of the Negro people."" Other definitions have come in the form of "self-government by African countries south of the Sahara," "the economic, social, and cultural development of the continent, the avoidance of conflict among African states, the promotion of African unity and influence in world affairs," and a personal favorite, "a struggle in which Africans and others of African blood have been engaged since their contact with modern Europe." Although none of these definitions are entirely accurate they, together, frame my understanding of Pan-Africanism as a political movement and philosophical tradition founded on African pride, a consciousness of the past, and a desired unification of continental Africans and all who identify with the diaspora; seeing Africa (and its descendents) as one body even in the presence of differing people,

Finally, European colonization also had a major political impact on different African communities. Prior to European colonialism, most African localities were stateless societies, where there was no main governmental body. Bohannan and Curtin in their passage explain how African “stateless organization all use kinship as the idiom of their system of sanctions” (1995:92), and additionally explain how “since there are two centers of power, no bureaucracy can arise” (1995:92), in stateless societies. This illustrates the difference between political structures in Africa and political structures in other parts of the world, including in Europe, as many other political structures have an increased presence of bureaucracy and government. Stateless societies in Africa started to diminish once Europeans started colonizing different African societies, as through the colonization process, European settlers imposed their political systems on different African communities. Bohannan and Curtin describe how “colonial officers tried to create some sort of a state organization and bureaucracy” (1995:94) in various African communities. Through this process, many previous forms of political organization in African societies were eliminated and newer forms emerged, and in many ways this was negative as many of these political systems did not favor African populations and put them at a disadvantage to European colonizers.

The Republic of Niger, a poor, landlocked country, located in the heart of Sub-Saharan West Africa. Niger has seen its fair share of change throughout the decades; moving away from the control of the French Parliament in 1960, Niger formally declared its independence. Despite this bold act of independence, Niger would not see its first steps towards democracy until the early 1990’s, when they held their first open election as a free state. However, even with the empowerment of the people in a democratic government, Niger has seen itself nearly torn apart as a result constant coups, that have occurred as recently as 2010. Such instability has led to incredulous amounts of corruption and poverty, within the Niger government. This lack of stability and constant turnover in government, has been a driving factor behind the lack of resources available for education in Niger.

In Besteman’s ethnographies, South Africa face the challenges of transforming its self after dealing with apartheid. In reality , I had expected more data on the post-war Sierra Leone , only because it has been a decade since the conflict ended. I believe that my frustration stems from me being originated from Sierra Leone. I would love for this country to pick up in terms of macroeconomics and microeconomics. But I now understand how detrimental civil wars are. My study shows one of the few concept discussed in class of African. It represents the most common problem the majority of African countries are facing , which is their corrupt government. The development for majority of African countries would be more of a constant growth if the government systems were firm and

First, Linz’s argument is based on “regionally skewed and highly selective sample of comparative experience” (144). If a sample set drawn primarily from Africa would be used to analyze parliamentarism, similar conclusions about the regime design as a source of crisis could be drawn. Second, the “perils” of presidentialism are based on a “mechanistic, even caricatured, view of the presidency” (Horowitz

Stephen Medvic in his book, “In Defense of Politicians: The Expectations Trap and Its Threat to Democracy” reflects the problems of policies that affect the majority of society’s democratic contemporary: the discrediting of the class policy. As a reaction to the continuous vilification of the politicians, the author defends the hypothesis that much of the arguments condemning the policy professionals are unfair and undeserved. Although there are example of politicians corrupt or lacking in ethics, establish generalizations is wrong and is totally unjustified. Likewise, the book highlights the danger posed by this cynicism toward the political class for the legitimacy of democracy. And is that, despite that blind obedience not is positive, the figure of the political deserves respect and is necessary for the good functioning of those societies democratic.

Corruption can be defined as the use of entrusted power to accumulate public wealthy for personal benefit. Corruption is not peculiar to any country, continent or state; it is sure a global issue which is an endemic to all government all over the world. However, corruption is prevalent in the Niger delta region of Nigeria; public officers in this oil producing state of Nigeria are corrupt. Consequently, it has defied the Niger delta from developing politically and economically which has left the states reputation in a mess. Radicalization of youths, abject poverty and -political instability are the three leading effects of corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.

Indirect rule is a system that was put into place by imperialist who did not have the manpower to rule a country by force. It is an ingenious system that allowed countries to come into Africa and impose their rules and influences over the natives without fully taking over. According to W. R. Cocker, Sir Fredrick Lugard was given the position of High Commissioner in Northern Nigeria. His objective was to bring Nigeria under British rule. This was no easy task because the native population outnumbered the amount of men they could bring to enforce British rule and government. So what Sir Lugard did, as did many other imperialist, left most of the power in the hands of the natives. In Lugard’s case, the land was under the control of the Fulani Emirate, which he found their administrative set up to be respectable. Not left with much of a choice, he left the Emirates in charge and set in place British rule which governed alongside side the natives. Thus indirect rule was brought to Africa.