Contemporary African Politics

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the study of contemporary African politics. The questions that motivate the course are: How did authoritarian regimes arise in most countries after African independence? Why have some African countries become democratic, while others have remained authoritarian? What accounts for patterns of conflict and civil war across countries? Throughout the semester, we will see that there is significant variation within Africa in the strength of states, levels of economic growth, and respect for democratic institutions; we will aim to explain these variations. We will primarily study events in particular African countries, but will also examine broad patterns across countries and use social science concepts and methods to try to explain them. In our exploration, we will mostly build on the work of political scientists but also draw heavily on work by journalists, psychologists, economists, and historians.