An Empirical Profile of Weak States in Sub-Saharan Africa

Atiku-Abubakar, Jennifer J.; Shaw-Taylor, Yoku

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Title:	An Empirical Profile of Weak States in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors:	Atiku-Abubakar, Jennifer J. Shaw-Taylor, Yoku
Year:	2003
Periodical:	Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907)
Volume:	28
Issue:	3-4
Pages:	168-185
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Subsaharan Africa Africa
Subjects:	ethnic relations social inequality minority groups civil wars Politics and Government Economics and Trade Ethnic and Race Relations politics Political theory political stability developing countries economic dependence
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/24482699
Abstract:	In this paper, the authors present an empirical construct to describe attributes of 32 weak States in sub-Saharan Africa using the Minorities at Risk Database, which is maintained by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, USA (www.mar.org). Weak States are defined as having a prevalence of structural inequality, the components of which are economic differentiation, cultural (or social) inequality and political inequality. The authors used this construct to predict intercommunal conflict in two periods: between 1940 and 1989, and since 1990. Analysis showed that the structural inequality construct is reliable and that the likelihood of intercommunal or ethnic conflict between 1940 and 1989 was associated with cultural differentials. Results also suggest that structural inequality, by itself, does not directly lead to intercommunal conflict. The authors argue that the addition of a variable that captures prevalence of small arms or light weapons will improve the predictive power of the model. Frequency distributions of the construct revealed that there is a high incidence of intercommunal conflict in the region and that three countries in particular were 'best performers': Zambia, Tanzania and Ghana. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]

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