Pre-colonial centralisation, traditional indirect rule, and state capacity in Africa
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What explains contemporary variation in state capacity across African states? Recent research has focused on the possible role played by colonial and pre-colonial institutions. This paper investigates the way in which colonial and pre-colonial institutions interacted to affect the public legitimacy and coercive capacity of African states on independence. A coherent configuration of historical institutions, pre-colonial centralisation combined with colonial indirect rule through traditionally legitimate rulers, contrasts with the incoherent and comparatively illegitimate configurations of pre-colonial decentralisation with traditional rule and pre-colonial centralisation with colonial non-traditional or direct rule. The paper tests the theoretical expectations in a historical instrumental-variables framework.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Commonwealth and Comparative Politics |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 2 |
Pages (from-to) | 195-215 |
ISSN | 1466-2043 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
- State-building, state capacity, colonialism, economic history, political development
Research areas
ID: 210197791