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Michael G. Schatzberg is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (Indiana University Press) and Mobutu or Chaos? He is editor of The
Political Economy of Kenya, The Political Economy of Zimbabwe, and co-editor (with I. William Zartman) of The Political Economy of Cameroon.
List of contents
Preliminary Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
1. Metaphor and Matrix
Methods
Paternal and Familial Metaphors
The Moral Matrix of Legitimate Governance
Subjacency, Legitimacy, and the "Unthinkable"
2. Representations of Power
Power Defined
Local Faces of Power
Conclusion
3. Parameters of The Political
The Elision of Church and State
The Elision of State and Civil Society
Conclusion
4. Alternative Causalities
The Banality of Sorcery
The Perils of Explanation in Congo/Zaïre
Other Visions
5. Matrix I-The Father-Chief: Rights and Responsibilities
Nurture and Nourishment
Punishment and Pardon
Corruption and Its Limits
6. Matrix II-Gender and Generation: Women, the Paternal Order, and the Alternation of Power
Women and the Paternal Order
Women as Counselors
Evolving Norms
Generational Rotation
7. Democracy and the Logic of Legitimacy
Epistemological Issues
The Matrix Revisited
Legitimacy, Democracy, and "Democratization"
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
Michael G. Schatzberg is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (Indiana University Press) and Mobutu or Chaos? He is editor of The
Political Economy of Kenya, The Political Economy of Zimbabwe, and co-editor (with I. William Zartman) of The Political Economy of Cameroon.
Summary
Exploring the cultural underpinnings of political legitimacy, this title argues that the societies have a culturally-rooted template against which people come to understand the political legitimacy, or 'thinkability', of institutions, ideas, policies, and procedures. It also explores the role of the father-chief as head of the family.
