One Size Fits All: The Origins of Mixed Governance in Namibia

Abstract

ABSTRACT While much has been written about the resurgence of traditional authorities in sub-Saharan Africa, we know less about what explains differences in the institutional and regulatory frameworks that link traditional leaders to formal governments. Even though they have rarely been applied to resurging traditional leaders, existing theories of institutional choice are likely to yield important insights when applied to different models of mixed governance. In this article, the author closely examines the origins of the institutional framework that presently governs the relations between the central government and traditional authorities in Namibia. The author finds that both exogenous motivations such as the ideology of policymakers and endogenous determinants such as the potential for electoral mobilization matter for understanding the forms that mixed governance takes.