Click here to get an answer to your question Discuss any similarities between the key features of the fourth republican democracy and the traditional afri (2005), customary systems operating outside of the state regime are often the dominant form of regulation and dispute resolution, covering up to 90% of the population in parts of Africa. There is strong demand for jobs, better economic management, reduced inequality and corruption and such outcome deliverables as health, education and infrastructure.22 Those outcomes require effective governance institutions. Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. As a result, they are not dispensable as long as the traditional economic systems endure. He served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. Reconciling the parallel institutional systems is also unlikely to deliver the intended results in a short time; however, there may not be any better alternatives. Aristotle was the first to define three principal types of government systems in the fourth century B.C. On the one hand, traditional institutions are highly relevant and indispensable, although there are arguments to the contrary (see Mengisteab & Hagg [2017] for a summary of such arguments). Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. A related reason for their relevance is that traditional institutions, unlike the state, provide rural communities the platform to participate directly in their own governance. Womens inequality in the traditional system is related, at least in part, to age- and gender-based divisions of labor characterizing traditional economic systems. It also develops a theoretical framework for the . This discussion leads to an analysis of African conflict trends to help identify the most conflict-burdened sub-regions and to highlight the intimate link between governance and conflict patterns. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . This adds to the challenge of building national identities; this identity vacuum increases the risk that political elites and social groups will capture the state for narrower, self-interested purposes that weaken, rather than strengthen, social cohesion. This section grapples with the questions of whether traditional institutions are relevant in the governance of contemporary Africa and what implications their endurance has on Africas socioeconomic development. The origins of this institutional duality, the implications of which are discussed in Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, are largely traceable to the colonial state, as it introduced new economic and political systems and superimposed corresponding institutional systems upon the colonies without eradicating the existed traditional economic, political, and institutional systems. These dynamics often lead to increased state fragility or the re-authoritarianization of once more participatory governance systems.12 The trend is sometimes, ironically, promoted by western firms and governments more interested in commercial access and getting along with existing governments than with durable political and economic development. These different economic systems have corresponding institutional systems with divergent property rights laws and resource allocation mechanisms, disparate decision-making systems, and distinct judicial systems and conflict resolution mechanisms. They also serve as guardians and symbols of cultural values and practices. Understanding the Gadaa System. West Africa has a long and complex history. The optimistic replyand it is a powerful oneis that Africans will gradually build inclusive political and economic institutions.18 This, however, requires wise leadership. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. The colonial system constitutes the second section. One can identify five bases of regime legitimacy in the African context today. One-sided violence against unarmed civilians has also spiked up since 2011.4, These numbers require three major points of clarification. To complicate matters further, the role of traditional institutions is likely to be critical in addressing the problem of institutional fragmentation. One scholar specializing on the Horn of Africa likens the situation a political marketplace in which politics and violence are simply options along the spectrum pursued by powerful actors.5. The first type is rights-based legitimacy deriving from rule of law, periodic elections, and alternation of political power, the kind generally supported by western and some African governments such as Ghana and Senegal. . In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. This brief overview of conflict in Africa signals the severity of the security challenges to African governance, especially in those sub-regions that feature persistent and recurrent outbreaks of violence. Rules of procedure were established through customs and traditions some with oral, some with written constitutions Women played active roles in the political system including holding leadership and military positions. Even the court system is designed to provide for consociational, provincial, and local organization, not as separate courts but as divisions of the key national courts; once again, a compromise between a fully federal or consociational arrangement and the realities of the South African situation that emphasize the preservation of national unity . For example, the election day itself goes more or less peacefully, the vote tabulation process is opaque or obscure, and the entire process is shaped by a pre-election playing field skewed decisively in favor of the incumbents. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? You cant impose middle class values on a pre-industrial society.13. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. The essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance. Extensive survey research is required to estimate the size of adherents to traditional institutions. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. A look at the economic systems of the adherents of the two institutional systems also gives a good indication of the relations between economic and institutional systems. In the thankfully rare cases where national governance breaks down completelySouth Sudan, Somalia, CARits absence is an invitation to every ethnic or geographic community to fend for itselfa classic security dilemma. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. Traditional affairs. This category of chiefs serves their communities in various and sometimes complex roles, which includes spiritual service. Cookie Settings. Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. Interestingly, small and mid-size state leaders have won the award so far.) This outline leads us to examine more closely the sources of legitimacy in African governance systems. It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. When conflicts evolve along ethnic lines, they are readily labelled ethnic conflict as if caused by ancient hatreds; in reality, it is more often caused by bad governance and by political entrepreneurs. Despite apparent differences, the strategies of the three countries have some common features as well that may inform other counties about the measures institutional reconciliation may entail. Stagnant economy, absence of diversification in occupational patterns and allegiance to traditionall these have a bearing on the system of education prevailing in these societies. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. In Module Seven A: African History, you explored the histories of a wide diversity of pre-colonial African societies. Such adjustments, however, may require contextualization of the institutions of democracy by adjusting these institutions to reflect African realities. Other governance systems in the post-independence era and their unique features, if any. Hindrance to democratization: Perhaps among the most important challenges institutional fragmentation poses is to the process of democratization. Despite such changes, these institutions are referred to as traditional not because they continue to exist in an unadulterated form as they did in Africas precolonial past but because they are largely born of the precolonial political systems and are adhered to principally, although not exclusively, by the population in the traditional (subsistent) sectors of the economy. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). A partial explanation as to why the traditional systems endure was given in the section Why African Traditional Institutions Endure. The argument in that section was that they endure primarily because they are compatible with traditional economic systems, under which large segments of the African population still operate. Some live in remote areas beyond the reach of some of the institutions of the state, such as courts. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. A Functional Approach to define Government 2. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. African countries are characterized by fragmentation of various aspects of their political economy, including their institutions of governance. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. "Law" in traditional Africa includes enforceable traditions, customs, and laws. The political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. Allocation of resources, such as land, is also much more egalitarian under the traditional system than it is under the private ownership system in the formal state system. Another basic question is, whom to include? However, the system of traditional government varied from place to place. Poor gender relations: Traditional institutions share some common weaknesses. As institutional scholars state, institutional incompatibility leads to societal conflicts by projecting different laws governing societal interactions (Eisenstadt, 1968; Helmke & Levitsky, 2004; March & Olsen, 1984; North, 1990; Olsen, 2007). Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Any insurrection by a segment of the population has the potential to bring about not only the downfall of governments but also the collapse of the entire apparatus of the state because the popular foundation of the African state is weak. The parallel institutional systems often complement each other in the continents contemporary governance. Among the attributes of the traditional system with such potential is the systems transparent and participatory process of resolving conflicts, which takes place in open public meetings. In the past decade, traditional security systems utilized in commercial or government facilities have consisted of a few basic elements: a well-trained personnel, a CCTV system, and some kind of access control system. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. What policies and laws will determine relations between farmers and urban dwellers, between farmers and herders, between diverse identity groups living in close proximity or encroaching on each others farm land, and between public officials, criminal networks and ordinary citizens? By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . Settling a case in an official court, for example, may involve long-distance travel for villagers and it may require lawyers, translators, a long wait, and court fees, while a traditional court rarely involves such costs and inconveniences. Political leaders everywhere face competing demands in this regard.
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