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The lecture aims at giving a comprehensive overview on the political dynamics of the 48 states in Sub-Saharan Africa in the period since their political independence. We will both stress the common structural context which has been shaping political processes in Africa, and the varying actor constellations, institutions, and ideologies specific to countries.
The course is organised around a number of broad themes (post-colonial state, regimes, democratic institutions, clientelism, parties, social groups and ethnicity, religion, gender) that are first analysed in their general relevance by using general comparative politics concepts and methods. In a second step African case studies are selected for each of the themes and the lecture will use the cases to illustrate the broader developments. The course is less concerned with the role of international actors as their role is covered in other courses.
Students will acquire a basic knowledge of the broad structural patterns and processes of African societies and politics, and get some more expertise for selected countries. All students thus select one of the case-studies and gain expertise on one selected African country by engaging in a small research on the country and by relating thsi to teh general topic of the session. Students will need to prepare for a collective input on their country the day it is covered in the lecture. |
