State in Africa

The Politics of the Belly
2. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7456-4437-0
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 420 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 693 g

The State in Africa is one of the important and compelling texts of comparative politics and historical sociology of the last twenty years. Bayart rejects the assumption of African ‘otherness’ based on stereotyped images of famine, corruption and civil war. Instead he invites the reader to see that African politics is like politics anywhere else in the world, not an exotic aberration.

Africans themselves speak of a ‘politics of the belly’ – an expression that refers not only to the necessities of survival but also to a complex array of cultural representations, notably those of the ‘invisible’ world of sorcery. The ‘politics of the belly’ attests to a distinctively African trajectory of power that we need to understand as part of a long-term historical development.

While acknowledging the insights of Western social scientists from Weber to Foucault, Bayart never loses sight of the realities of African politics and social life and he is careful to allow African voices – from the ‘small boy’ in the street to the ‘big men’ in the presidential palaces – to speak for themselves.

This new edition of Bayart’s classic book includes a new introduction on Africa in the world today.

This book has established itself as an indispensable text on the state and politics in Africa. It also provides a nuanced reading of what we have come to call ‘development’ and opens the way for a more general reflection on the invention of politics in African and Asian societies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bayart, Jean-Francois

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Staats- und Regierungsformen, Staatslehre
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword by John Dunn

Notice

Preface to the second English edition (2009)

Preface to the first English edition (1993)

Preface to the original French edition (1989)

Introduction

Part One: The Genesis of the State

Part Two: Scenarios in the Pursuit of Hegemony

Part Three: Political Action

Conclusion: Of Terroirs and Men

Notes Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jean-Francois Bayart, Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris