Working with the Grain? Rethinking African Governance

08 March 2011

At the heart of current policy thinking about Africa there is a significant knowledge gap concerning governance and development. The March 2011 issue of IDS Bulletin, is concerned with what can be done about that, drawing on new findings from the research consortium, Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP). APPP is committed to discovering forms of governance that work better for development than those prescribed by the current 'good governance' orthodoxy. It aims to do so chiefly by examining the range of post-colonial experience in sub-Saharan Africa focusing especially on under-appreciated patterns of difference in institutions and outcomes.

Working with the Grain? Rethinking African Governance has just been published. Although the IDS Bulletin is a subscription-only publication, institutions from the global south that are signed up to philanthropic institutions such as HINARI or AGORA benefit from free access.

Contents of this issue:

• Introduction: Working with the Grain? The Africa Power and Politics Programme
  David Booth
• Towards a Theory of Local Governance and Public Goods Provision
  David Booth
• The Eight Modes of Local Governance in West Africa
  Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
• Local Powers and the Co-delivery of Public Goods in Niger
  Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
• Local Governance and Public Goods in Malawi
  Diana Cammack
• Makeni City Council and the Politics of Co-production in Post-conflict Sierra Leone
  Anna Workman
• Popular Concepts of Justice and Hybrid Judicial Institutions in Ghana
  Richard C. Crook, Kojo P. Asante and Victor K. Brobbey
• Rethinking the Relationship between Neo-patrimonialism and Economic Development in Africa
  Tim Kelsall
• Neo-patrimonialism, Institutions and Economic Growth: The Case of Malawi, 1964–2009
  Diana Cammack and Tim Kelsall
• Conclusion: Rethinking African Governance and Development
  Richard C. Crook and David Booth

The Africa Power and Politics Programme is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Irish Aid, for the benefit of developing countries.