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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Neither Soft nor Dead: The African State is Alive and Well
Author:Sangmpam, S.N.ISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:African Studies Review
Volume:36
Issue:2
Period:September
Pages:73-94
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:development
nation
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/524734
Abstract:According to the so-called 'soft State paradigm', there are two types of statehood: empirical (the States of Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia) and juridical or soft (the excolonial world, particularly tropical Africa). The proponents of the soft State paradigm contend that Africa's socioeconomic and political problems are the result of the softness of the African State or its lack of institutional capabilities. This paper challenges this suggestion. It argues that Africa cannot be considered 'sui generis'. That the African State, presumably soft, shares its traits with the presumably empirical State in Asia and Latin America invalidates, on empirical grounds, the claim of a causal link between the softness of the African State and its socioeconomic features. The paper shows that socioeconomic and political features, including institutions, offered as evidence of the softness of the African State, actually result from pseudocapitalism, the generator of a specific type of politics and the overpoliticized State in the Third World. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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