Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:53:46.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rethinking Patrimonialism and Neopatrimonialism in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Anne Pitcher ,
Mary H. Moran  and
Michael Johnston
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Current usages of the terms patrimonial and neopatrimonial in the context of Africa are conceptually problematical and amount to a serious misreading of Weber. His use of the term patrimonial delineated a legitimate type of authority, not a type of regime, and included notions of reciprocity and voluntary compliance between rulers and the ruled. Those reciprocities enabled subjects to check the actions of rulers, which most analyses of (neo) patrimonialism overlook. We apply these insights to a case study of Botswana and suggest that scholars reconsider the application of Weber's concepts to African states.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , April 2009 , pp. 125 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. 2003. “An African Success Story: Botswana.” In In Search of Prosperity: Analytic Narratives on Economic Growth, edited by Rodrik, Dani, 80–119. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bayart, Jean-François. 1985. L'Etat au Cameroun. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale de Sciences Politiques.Google Scholar
Bayart, Jean-François. 1986. “Civil Society in Africa.” In Political Domination in Africa: Reflections on the Limits of Power, edited by Chabal, Patrick, 109–25. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bayart, Jean-François. 1993. The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael, Mattes, Robert, and Gyimah-Boadi, E.. 2005. Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bratton, M., and van de Walle, Nicholas. 1994. “Neo-patrimonial Regimes and Political Transitions in Africa.” World Politics 46: 453–89.Google Scholar
Bratton, M., and van de Walle, Nicholas. 1997. Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, Gretchen, and Taylor, Scott D.. 2005. Politics in Southern Africa: State and Society in Transition. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Budd, Eric. 2004. Democratization, Development, and the Patrimonial State in the Age of Globalization. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Callaghy, Thomas. 1984. The State-Society Struggle: Zaire in Comparative Perspective. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callaghy, Thomas. 1986. “Politics and Vision in Africa: The Interplay of Domination, Equality and Liberty.” In Political Domination in Africa: Reflections on the Limits of Power, edited by Chabal, Patrick, 31–51. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Callaghy, Thomas. 1988. “The State and the Development of Capitalism in Africa: Theoretical, Historical, and Comparative Reflections.” In The Precarious Balance: State and Society in Africa, edited by Rothschild, Donald and Chazan, Naomi, 67–99. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Carroll, Terrance, and Carroll, Barbara Wake. 2004. “The Rapid Emergence of Civil Society in Botswana.” Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 42: 333–55.Google Scholar
Chabal, Patrick, and Daloz, Jean-Pascal. 1999. Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Clapham, Christopher. 1985. Third World Politics: An Introduction. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Corry, Stephen. 2002. “Botswana Destroying the San.” New African 410. www.articlearchives.com.Google Scholar
Crook, R. C. 1989. “Patrimonialism, Administrative Effectiveness and Economic Development in Côte D'Ivoire.” African Affairs 88: 205–28.Google Scholar
Danevad, Andreas. 1995. “Responsiveness in Botswana Politics: Do Elections Matter?” Journal of Modern African Studies 33: 381–402.Google Scholar
deGrassi, Aaron. 2008. “‘Neopatrimonialism’ and Agricultural Development in Africa: Contributions and Limitations of a Contested Concept.” African Studies Review 51 (3): 107–33.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2002. “Thinking about Hybrid Regimes.” Journal of Democracy 13 (2): 21–35.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2008. “The Rule of Law versus the Big Man.” Journal of Democracy 19 (2): 138–49.Google Scholar
“Economic Snapshot.” 2008. Republic of Botswana, www.gov.bw.Google Scholar
The Economist. 2004. “Africa's Prize Democracy.” November 6. www.economist.com.Google Scholar
Elliot, Jeffrey M., and Dymally, Mervyn M., eds. 1990. Voices of Zaire: Rhetoric or Reality? Washington, D.C.: The Washington Institute Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, Stephen. 1993. “Rumour and Power in Togo.” Africa 63: 462–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Englebert, Pierre. 2000a. “Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa.” Political Research Quarterly 53 (1): 7–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Englebert, Pierre. 2000b. State Legitimacy and Development in Africa. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Englebert, Pierre. 2002. “Born-Again Buganda or the Limits of Traditional Resurgence in Africa.” Journal of Modern African Studies 40: 345–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdmann, Gero, and Engel, Ulf. 2007. “Neopatrimonialism Reconsidered: Critical Review and Elaboration of an Elusive Concept,” Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 45 (1): 95–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, Kenneth. 1992. “Interpreting the Exceptionality of Botswana.“ Journal of Modern African Studies 30: 69–95.Google Scholar
Good, Kenneth. 1994. “Corruption and Mismanagement in Botswana: A Best-Case Example?” Journal of Modern African Studies 32: 499–521.Google Scholar
Good, Kenneth. 1996. “Towards Popular Participation in Botswana.” Journal of Modern African Studies 34: 53–77.Google Scholar
Good, Kenneth. 1999. “The State and Extreme Poverty in Botswana: The San and Destitutes.“ Journal of Modern African Studies 37: 185–205.Google Scholar
Gyimah-Boadi, E. 2007. “Political Parties, Elections and Patronage: Random Thoughts on Neo-Patrimonialism and African Democratization.” In Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Basedau, Matthias, Erdmann, Gero, and Mehler, Andreas, 21–33. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Helmke, Gretchen, and Levitsky, Steven. 2004. “Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda.” Perspectives on Politics 2: 725–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodges, Tony. 2008. “The Economic Foundations of The Patrimonial State.” In Angola: The Weight of History, edited by Chabal, Patrick and Vidal, Nuno, 175–99. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Holm, John D., Molutsi, Patrick P., and Somolekae, Gloria. 1996. “The Development of Civil Society in a Democratic State: The Botswana Model.” African Studies Review 39: 43–69.Google Scholar
Holm, John D. 2000. “Curbing Corruption through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana.” In Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Case Studies, edited by Hope, K. R. and Chikulo, B., 288–304. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hyden, Goran. 1997. “Civil Society, Social Capital, and Development: Dissection of a Complex Discourse.” Studies in Comparative International Development. 32 (1): 3–30.Google Scholar
Hyden, Goran. 2000. “The Governance Challenge in Africa.” In African Perspectives on Governance, edited by Hyden, G., Olowu, D., and Ogendo, H.W.O.O., 5–32. Trenton, N.J.: African World Press.Google Scholar
Hyden, Goran. 2006. African Politics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H., and Rosberg, Carl G.. 1982. Personal Rule in Black Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Michael. 2005. Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joseph, Richard. 1987. Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leonard, David K., and Straus, Scott. 2003. Africa's Stalled Development: International Causes and Cures. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Lewis, Peter. 1998. “Political Transition and the Dilemma of Civil Society in Africa.” In Africa: Dilemmas of Development and Change, edited by Lewis, Peter, 137–58. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Stephen R. 1993. “Policymaking and Economic Performance: Botswana in Comparative Perspective.” In Botswana: The Political Economy of Democratic Development, edited by Stedman, Stephen John, 11–25. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, Christian. 2008. Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medard, Jean-Francois. 1982. “The Underdeveloped State in Tropical Africa: Political Clientelism or Neo-patrimonialism?” In Private Patronage and Public Power: Political Clientelism and the Modern State, edited by Clapham, Christopher, 162–92. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Medard, Jean-Francois. 1994. “L'Etat Neo-patrimonial en Afrique Noire.” In Etats d'Afrique Noire: Formation, Mecanismes et Crises, edited by Medard, Jean-Francois, 323–53. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Mehler, Andreas. 2007. “Political Parties and Violence in Africa: Systematic Reflections against Empirical Background.” In Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Basedau, Matthias, Erdmann, Gero, and Mehler, Andreas, 194–13. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Molomo, Mpho. 2000. “Understanding Government and Opposition Parties in Botswana.” Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 38 (1): 65–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molutsi, Patrick P., and Holm, John D.. 1990. “Developing Democracy When Civil Society is Weak: The Case of Botswana.” African Affairs 89: 323–40.Google Scholar
Morton, Christopher. 2004. “Fixity and Fluidity: Chiefly Authority and Settlement Movement in Colonial Botswana.” History and Anthropology 15: 345–65.Google Scholar
MSNBC. 2008. “Another Smooth Transition for Botswana.” March 31. www.msnbc.msn.com.Google Scholar
Murphy, William. 2003. “Military Patrimonialism and Child Soldier Clientelism in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean Civil Wars.” African Studies Review 46 (2): 61–87.Google Scholar
Oelbaum, Jay. 2002. “Populist Reform Coalitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana's Triple Alliance.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 36: 281–328.Google Scholar
Peters, Pauline E. 1984. “Struggles over Water, Struggles over Meaning: Cattle, Water and the State in Botswana.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 54 (3): 29–127.Google Scholar
Peters, Pauline E.. 1994. Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Poteete, Amy R. 2003a. “When Professionalism Clashes with Local Particularities: Ecology, Elections and Procedural Arrangements in Botswana.” Journal of Southern African Studies 29: 461–85.Google Scholar
Poteete, Amy R.. 2003b. “Ideas, Interests, and Institutions: Challenging the Property Rights Paradigm in Botswana.” Governance 16: 527–57.Google Scholar
Reno, Will. 1995. Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reno, Will. 1998. Warlord Politics and African States. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Robinson, James A., and Parsons, Q. Neil. 2006. “State Formation and Governance in Botswana.” Journal of African Economies 15 (AERC supp. 1): 100–40.Google Scholar
Rotberg, Robert I. 2004. “Strengthening African Leadership: There Is Another Way.” Foreign Affairs 83 (4): 14–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, Guenther. 1978. “Introduction.” In Weber, Max, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Samatar, Abdi Ismail, and Oldfield, Sophie. 1995. “Class and Effective State Institutions: The Botswana Meat Commission.” Journal of Modern African Studies 33: 651–68.Google Scholar
Samatar, Abdi Ismail. 1999. An African Miracle: State and Class Leadership and Colonial Legacy in Botswana Development. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Samatar, Abdi Ismail. 2002. “Botswana: Comprehending the Exceptional State.” In The African State: Reconsiderations, edited by Samatar, Abdi Ismail and Samatar, Ahmed I., 17–51. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, Michael G. 2001. Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, David. 2005. “Democracy Unrealized: Zambia's Third Republic under Frederick Chiluba.” In The Fate of Africa's Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions, edited by Villalón, Leonardo and Von Doepp, Peter, 199–220. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Somolekae, Gloria. 2002. “Democracy, Civil Society and Good Governance in Botswana.” In Breaking Barriers, Creating New Hopes: Democracy, Civil Society and Good Governance in Africa, edited by Bujra, Abdalla and Adejumobi, Said, 187–214. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Springborg, Robert. 1982. Family, Power, and Politics in Egypt: Sayed Bey Marei—His Clan, Clients, and Cohorts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Julie J. 2007. “Celebrating San Victory Too Soon? Reflections on the Outcome of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve Case.” Anthropology Today 23 (5): 3–5.Google Scholar
Theobald, Robin. 1982. “Patrimonialism.” World Politics 34: 548–59.Google Scholar
Van Allen, Judith. 2001. “Women's Rights Movements as a Measure of African Democracy.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 36 (1): 39–63.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicholas. 1994. “Neopatrimonialism and Democracy in Africa, with an Illustration from Cameroon.” In Economic Change and Political Liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Widner, Jennifer A., 128–57. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicholas. 2001. African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979–1999. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van de Walle, Nicholas. 2007. “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss? The Evolution of Political Clientelism in Africa.” In Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, edited by Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven, 50–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vidal, Nuno. 2003. “Modern and Post-Modern Patrimonialism.” In Community and the State in Lusophone Africa, edited by Newitt, Malyn, Chabal, Patrick, and MacQueen, Norrie, 1–14. London: King's College.Google Scholar
Vidal, Nuno. 2008. “Social Neglect and the Emergence of Civil Society in Angola.” In Angola: The Weight of History, edited by Chabal, Patrick and Vidal, Nuno, 124–74. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Vincent, Jeanne-Françoise. 1986. “L'oeil de la panthère sied au chef: Remarques sur la conception mofu du pouvoir politique (Nord-Cameroun).” In Afrique Plurielle, Afrique Actuelle: Hommage à Georges Balandier, edited by Balandier, Georges and Adler, Alfred, 199–216. Paris: Éditions Karthala.Google Scholar
VonDeopp, Peter, and Villalón, Leonardo. 2005. “Elites, Institutions, and the Varied Trajectories of Africa's Third Wave Democracies.” In The Fate of Africa's Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions, edited by Villalon, Leonardo and VonDoepp, Peter, 1–26. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Translated and edited by Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1947 [1922]. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translated by Henderson, A. M. and Parsons, Talcott. Edited by Parsons, Talcott. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1956 [1922]. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Edited by Winckelmann, Johnannes. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Volumes 1 & 2. Edited by Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Werbner, Richard. 2004. Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana: The Public Anthropology of Kalanga Elites. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide R. 1966. Creating Political Order: The Party-States of West Africa. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar