Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
By Jeffrey Herbst
Unlike most European states, which consolidated their power and fixed their present boundaries largely through war, African states acquired their borders by fiat and have rarely faced external military threats to their sovereignty. The postcolonial international system has given them an easy ride to statehood, leaving their national identities, revenue-extraction capabilities, and administrative systems seriously underdeveloped in the process. Comparing a wide range of African countries, this book explores the implications for state consolidation posed by their sizes, shapes, and population distributions, as well as by their historical records of road building, effectively allocating land, managing national currencies, and defining citizenship. It concludes by offering some radical suggestions for addressing state failure in Africa: less rigid adherence to the nation-state model, more tolerance of viable secessionist movements, nonrecognition of the sovereignty of failed governments, and stronger promotion of supranational identities.
External Link: State and Power in Africa
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The book also raised the framework of those buildings where findings suggests that they are far from the safety standards for compliance. As the world is moving into sustainable construction, African cities must also adapt; even if it means bypassing the 70's gravel infrastructure.
Fruitful idealism spurns change in the civic and political climate of the African states. The most heroic agencies of change in Africa are the celebrated individuals. While rebel factions who fight for an ideology happens to become their oppressors.