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, culture, religion and regional politics) 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 and economic factors as these issues are covered in other courses.
Students will thus acquire a basic knowledge of the broad structural patterns and processes of African societies and politics, and get some more expertise for selected countries. Students should prepare the compulsory reading concerning the thematic sessions before coming to class. The further reading is for your information, for writing seminar papers, but you are of course, invited to engage with this literature.
At the same time all students select one of the presented case-studies and thus become experts on one selected African country and engage in a small research on the country. Be prepared to present an input on your country the day it is covered in the lecture. All material from the syllabus is available via an electronic platform; for access you need a password which will be communicated in the first meeting.
Students are also invited to raise Africa-related topics of current interest during the lecture.
The objectives of this course can only be reached if students attend regularly and prepare the readings. Students of MA DevGov will have a one-hour written exam at the end of the teaching period in order to get the ECTS for this course. Students from other MA programs will have a module-exam in an additional seminar. |
