An Introduction to African Politics

This fully updated fifth edition of An Introduction to African Politics is an ideal textbook for those new to the study of this fascinating continent.

Charting trends in government over six decades of the post-colonial era, the book tackles key questions such as: How have African states made sense of their colonial inheritance? How relevant are ethnic and religious identities? Why have some states collapsed and others prospered? Why did the one-party state fail? Why is contemporary Africa now dominated by electoral authoritarian states, and not the multi-party democracies promised in the 1990s?

Key features include:

• thematically organised, with chapters exploring issues such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, social class, ideology, legitimacy, authority, sovereignty and democracy;
• new five-part structure makes clearer Africa''s political evolution over time;

• new chapter on the emergence