State in Africa : the politics of the belly the politics of the belly / Jean-François Bayart.

By: Material type: TextLanguage: English Original language: French Publication details: Cambridge ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2009.Edition: 2nd edDescription: xc, 370 pagesUniform titles:
  • Etat en Afrique. English
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Print version:: State in Africa.DDC classification:
  • 320.96 22
LOC classification:
  • JQ1879 .B37
Online resources:
Contents:
The shadow theatre of ethnicity -- The unequal state: 'little men' and 'big men' -- The bourgeois illusion -- The opportunity state -- Conservative modernisation or social revolution? The extreme scenarios -- The reciprocal assimilation of elites: the hypothesis of an intermediate scenario -- The formation of a postcolonial historic bloc -- Entrepreneurs, factions and political networks -- The politics of the belly -- Conclusion: of terroirs and men.
Action note:
  • digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve
Summary: "The State in Africa is one of the most 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 and 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 witchcraft. 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."--Book cover.
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Cover image Item type Current library Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Vol info URL Copy number Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds Item hold queue priority Course reserves
Books African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights Library JQ1879 .B37 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 10222030
Books African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights Library JQ1879 .B37 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 10221999

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The shadow theatre of ethnicity -- The unequal state: 'little men' and 'big men' -- The bourgeois illusion -- The opportunity state -- Conservative modernisation or social revolution? The extreme scenarios -- The reciprocal assimilation of elites: the hypothesis of an intermediate scenario -- The formation of a postcolonial historic bloc -- Entrepreneurs, factions and political networks -- The politics of the belly -- Conclusion: of terroirs and men.

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"The State in Africa is one of the most 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 and 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 witchcraft. 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."--Book cover.

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010.

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

Translated from the French.

digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL

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