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In this ambitious and sophisticated work, anthropologist Michael Ralph uses the case of Senegal often held to be an exceptional democracy in Africato illustrate the mechanisms of credit and debt enforcement common to the emergence of all nation-states. Each chapter systematically addresses various pillars of what are termed the structures of liability, thereby managing to convey the idea that senses of belonging and exclusion i.e. citizenship, are as influenced by the economic sphere as the supposedly distinct cultural one. Ralph then goes beyond this and attaches it to the national level, i.e. sovereignty, as well, asserting that diplomatic standing in the arena of nation-states is also tied to questions of access and respect on the international credit markets. He argues that no country carries just governance in its essencejustice emerges from clear and reliable methods of accountability. In a world where democracy is adjudicated at the interface between national legislation and international standing in a regime of nations, all citizens of the world play a role in shaping the critical theories and methods required to ensure that protocols for international governance and lending are as accessible and democratic as they purport to be, and that governmentswhoever they may beface strict censure when they are not. This book represents an important intervention into several fields of studies, ranging from African Studies to Economic History to Anthropology."
About the author
Michael Ralph is associate professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University.
Summary
Examines Senegal's crucial and pragmatic decisions related to its development and how they garnered international favor, decisions such as its opposition to Soviet involvement in African liberation - despite itself being a socialist state - or its support for the US-led war on terror - despite its population being predominately Muslim.
