Sub-Saharan Africa: Searching for a Social Contract

<p>This thesis examines the phenomenon of civil war and state failure in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from a social contract perspective. Its main hypothesis is that authoritarianism will lead to state failure in the context of SSA. In this regard, SSA states are political communities that have not done enough to promote and develop a social contract that is compatible with the region's sociopolitical and structural peculiarities. Since civil war and state failure have hampered different dimensions of human progress in SSA, analyzing the main patterns of conflict will inevitably lead to an underlying incompatibility between existing governing political structures and the region's social structures. In this case, one major characteristic pattern of civil war and state failure in SSA is that they are caused by delegitimization of government authority by ethnic groups whose allegiance to internal traditional authority is still stronger than to centralized government. Hence, a social contract that will allow ethnic groups to legitimize state authority is what SSA lacks and needs.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Mayen, David D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Karen A. Feste, Ph.D.
• Lewis K. Griffith, Ph.D.
• Andrew R. Goetz

• Civil war
• Delegitimization
• Social contract
• Sociopolitical
• State failure
• Tribe and ethnic groups
• African Studies
• Political Science
• Politics and Social Change

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/410

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1409