Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

First Advisor

Karen A. Feste, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Lewis K. Griffith, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Andrew R. Goetz

Keywords

Civil war, Delegitimization, Social contract, Sociopolitical, State failure, Tribe and ethnic groups

Abstract

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.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

David D. Mayen

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

189 p.

Discipline

African studies

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