African Affairs最新文献_第7页

Bureaucratic fragmentation by design? the case of payroll management in the Democratic Republic of Congo 官僚主义的蓄意分裂?以刚果民主共和国的工资管理为例

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-30 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac032

Stylianos Moshonas, Tom de Herdt, Kristof Titeca, Paulin Balungwe Shamavu

{"title":"Bureaucratic fragmentation by design? the case of payroll management in the Democratic Republic of Congo","authors":"Stylianos Moshonas, Tom de Herdt, Kristof Titeca, Paulin Balungwe Shamavu","doi":"10.1093/afraf/adac032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adac032","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the sources of bureaucratic fragmentation and coherence in the Democratic Republic of Congo by exploring the connections and tensions between interface bureaucracies and the back-office administration tasked with managing the public payroll system. Building on the ‘real governance’ literature and the notion of ‘infrastructural power’, we analyse the recent history of payroll management in Congo and especially its evolution over the last decades of state implosion and reconstruction so as to gauge the potential of different drivers of state infrastructural power. The return of the state in the first decades of the twenty-first century led to a spectacular and unprecedented growth in the number of civil servants, made possible by a reconstituted state budget and renewed donor engagement. Yet this growth largely reflects increased political competition and further disarticulated the payroll system, increasing its vulnerability to the issue of ghost workers. The case study shows important trade-offs, in processes of post-conflict reconstruction, between the triple objectives of building state infrastructural power, making use of it to improve public service delivery, and its democratization.","PeriodicalId":7508,"journal":{"name":"African Affairs","volume":"62 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50167870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The logic of authoritarian industrial policy: the case of Angola’s special economic zone 威权产业政策的逻辑:以安哥拉经济特区为例

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-29 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac033

Nicolás Lippolis

{"title":"The logic of authoritarian industrial policy: the case of Angola’s special economic zone","authors":"Nicolás Lippolis","doi":"10.1093/afraf/adac033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adac033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The commodity boom witnessed the emergence of ambitious developmental projects in Africa. But in its focus on the distribution of power, the extant literature struggles to explain the logic driving observed development strategies. To fill this gap, this article provides the first comprehensive study of the Zona Económica Especial, Angola’s main industrial project of the post-civil war era. Built at a cost of at least US$1 billion, sprawling over 1.5 million hectares, and comprising establishments imported by the state across multiple sectors, the Zona Económica Especial de Luanda-Bengo’s ill-conceived design doomed it to failure from the start. But this did not hinder its use for elite rent-seeking, supported by the international networks fed by Angola’s oil wealth. I argue that these outcomes reflect the ruling MPLA’s typical ‘bifurcated policy style’, marked by a disjuncture between discourse and policy practice and the competition for the spoils of the state’s heavy expenditures. Its origins are to be found in the strategies deployed by MPLA leaders to enforce organizational cohesion and to pursue military and programmatic goals over the course of its long civil war. I contend that similar analyses could help illuminate the drivers of industrial policy in other party-based authoritarian regimes.","PeriodicalId":7508,"journal":{"name":"African Affairs","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41348503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

Book Review 书评

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-22 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac029

Diekara Oloruntoba-Oju

引用次数: 0

Book Review 书评

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-22 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac028

T. Lodge

引用次数: 0

Book Review 书评

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-12 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac027

Kathy Dodworth

引用次数: 0

Fitting China in: local elite collusion and contestation along Kenya’s standard Gauge Railway 适合中国：肯尼亚标准轨距铁路沿线的地方精英勾结和竞争

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-07-22 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac026

C. Alden, O. Otele

引用次数: 2

Public Governance and Technological Capabilities in the Kenyan Leather Industry 肯尼亚皮革行业的公共治理和技术能力

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-07-19 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac025

Giovanni Pasquali, Valentina De Marchi

{"title":"Public Governance and Technological Capabilities in the Kenyan Leather Industry","authors":"Giovanni Pasquali, Valentina De Marchi","doi":"10.1093/afraf/adac025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adac025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article focuses on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya’s leather sector. It explores how public governance impacts SMEs’ technological capabilities and access to global value chains (GVCs). By public governance, we mean all government regulations and interventions set in place to shape the organization of value chains. Drawing on interview data, the article compares Kenya’s leather handbag and footwear manufacturers. On the one hand, handbag SMEs have succeeded in upgrading and entering GVCs through a combination of foreign knowledge and partnership with local universities. Despite meeting with public governance barriers, this process has enabled the transfer of technological capabilities from foreign-owned firms to a number of emerging SMEs owned by Kenyan nationals. On the other hand, leather footwear production was developed during the 1970s by large firms under state support. As protectionist measures were lifted in the 1990s, firms shut down and producers moved into the informal economy, replicating outdated capabilities in a context of price-driven competition, thereby limiting upgrading and participation in GVCs. The article concludes by comparing these findings with the experience of Kenya’s apparel manufacturers and highlighting the critical need for GVC research to account for the role public governance in shaping firms’ technological capabilities and access to global markets.","PeriodicalId":7508,"journal":{"name":"African Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48066088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Logistics Contracts and the Political Economy of State Failure: Evidence from Somalia 物流契约与国家失败的政治经济学:来自索马里的证据

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-07-09 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac024

C. Elder

{"title":"Logistics Contracts and the Political Economy of State Failure: Evidence from Somalia","authors":"C. Elder","doi":"10.1093/afraf/adac024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adac024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Scholars have long sought to understand how economic rents may inhibit the formation of effective and accountable government. Prevailing interpretations of empirical state failure do not adequately account for economic connections and rents. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork and original source material from the Somalia context, this study shows how the dominance of the logistics economy, as a system of ‘graft’ endogenous to state-building, has contributed to empirical state failure. Empirical state failure is characterized by intra-elite struggle, endemic political violence, and insecurity including the threat posed by Islamic extremism. Contributing to the study of political settlements, political clientelism, and business–state relationships in Africa, findings from this study offer new insights for understanding how the dominance of logistics rents and lead firms within a political system may prevent the establishment of legitimate, centralized authorities. These findings contribute to the broader study of Africa’s political economies which have experienced protracted civil war and post-conflict reconstruction. In conclusion, it argues how economic development, procurement reform agendas, and efforts to withhold or withdraw aid through economic sanctions fail to resolve endemic conflict and governance issues due to vested interests, elite fragmentation, and polycentric aid practices. Instead, both government policy and foreign interventions continue to empower lead logistics firms (as skilful political entrepreneurs) that destabilize the Federal Government of Somalia.","PeriodicalId":7508,"journal":{"name":"African Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44404011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Reading Mozambique’s mega-project developmentalism through the workplace: evidence from Chineseand Brazilian investments 从工作场所解读莫桑比克的大型项目发展主义：来自中国和巴西投资的证据

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-06-29 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac019

Eric Cezne, U. Wethal

{"title":"Reading Mozambique’s mega-project developmentalism through the workplace: evidence from Chinese\u0000and Brazilian investments","authors":"Eric Cezne, U. Wethal","doi":"10.1093/afraf/adac019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adac019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Propelled by a commodities boom and expanding South–South investment, mega-projects have reshaped the politics of labour in many African settings. Reflecting on such dynamics, this article critically engages with questions of employment, skills development, and contestation re-configuring capital–labour encounters in the ‘Chinese’ and ‘Brazilian’ workplace in Mozambique. We analyse two mega-projects: the Maputo Ring Road, implemented by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, and the Moatize Coal Project, led by the Brazilian mining company, Vale SA. Engaging with the complex realities at project ground level, the article unpacks how workplace regimes and outcomes reflect an intricate, multi-scalar array of spatial encounters, sector-specific characteristics, and national political economies. For both cases, this is associated with common promises of development and prosperity for Mozambique. While such promises take on different ideational guises, we show that the Chinese and Brazilian workplaces expose, nonetheless, overlapping patterns of inequality, contention, and hostility, reinforced by broader vulnerabilities and imbalances in global production networks and the Mozambican political economy. By providing a ground-level reading of the multi-scalar forces at play in the workplace, this article sheds light on the relationship between emerging South–South global encounters, national political realities, and labour geographies in African contexts shaped by mega-projects.","PeriodicalId":7508,"journal":{"name":"African Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49398893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 7

Virtual issue: elections 虚拟议题:选举

IF 2.8 1区社会学

African Affairs Pub Date : 2022-06-27 DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adac018

Justine Davis

引用次数: 0