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State building in the African countryside: Structure and politics at the grassroots

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  • Catherine Boone

Abstract

This is a comparative analysis of institutions linking state and countryside in three West African regions: Senegal's groundnut basin, southern Cote d'Ivoire, and southern Ghana. It argues that conflicts within rural society, and between rural elites and governments, have been more important in shaping these linkages than much of state-centric political science has allowed. Different patterns of economic and social organisation have produced regionally-specific political dynamics that have, in turn, shaped institution-building and state formation. The analysis shows African states to be more deeply embedded in localised power relations than many previous studies have suggested. It may shed light on sources of unevenness and variation in attempts to decentralise and democratise state structures in the 1980s and 1990s.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Boone, 1998. "State building in the African countryside: Structure and politics at the grassroots," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 1-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:34:y:1998:i:4:p:1-31
    DOI: 10.1080/00220389808422527
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    Cited by:

    1. Nobuhiro Mizuno & Ryosuke Okazawa, 2009. "Colonial experience and postcolonial underdevelopment in Africa," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 405-419, December.
    2. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2002. "An African Success Story: Botswana," CEPR Discussion Papers 3219, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Maia Green, 2012. "Co-producing ineffective states: social knowledge, social policy and social citizenship in Africa and in development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-014-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    4. Hye-Ryoung Jung, 2024. "The Historical Origins of Communal Violence in Africa: Common Pool Resources-Driven Trust and Its Contrasting Effects on Violence," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(1), pages 53-81, February.
    5. G. Harrison, 2001. "Peasants, the agrarian question and lenses of development," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 1(3), pages 187-203, July.
    6. Olowu, D., 2001. "African decentralisation policies and practices from 1980s and beyond," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19077, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.

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