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This book addresses a pertinent issue in comparative politics: how can the discipline do analytical justice to regions of the world that differ historically from the Western experience? For decades the West has served as a baseline against which all other regions are assessed, most recently in studies of democratization. Structural differences between regions have been ignored in favour of explanations based on human agency and institutions. In Theorizing in Comparative Politics, Goran Hyden uses the countries of Africa as an empirical case to demonstrate what a structural approach adds to the comparative study of democracy. Priorities like state-building challenge the effort to shape democratic regimes and call for explanations that recognize the impact of local power dynamics on the prospects for democratic development. Informative and thoughtful, this book sheds light on issues that have been underexplored in the field in recent years.
Table des matières
1. Three theoretical spurts; 2. How history matters; 3. Relevance of social formations; 4. Nation-states and state-nations; 5. Regimes and institutions; 6. Parties and ideology; 7. Culture and the public sphere; 8. Four neighbours, four regimes; 9. What Africa teaches us.
A propos de l'auteur
Goran Hyden is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. Theorizing in Comparative Politics is the result of sixty years of research and teaching shared between East Africa and Florida. Earlier iterations of the work include Political Development in Rural Tanzania (1969), No Shortcuts to Progress (1983), and African Politics in Comparative Perspective (2006).
Résumé
This book moves comparison beyond a narrow focus on democratization to better understand politics in developing regions of the world. Using Africa as empirical reference, it shows the gaps in knowledge left behind by the narrow application of democratic theory in recent decades.
Préface
This book moves comparison beyond a narrow focus on democratization to better understand politics in developing regions of the world.
