Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: Father, Family, Food

by Michael G. Schatzberg

Overview

Michael G. Schatzberg explores the cultural underpinnings of political legitimacy. He argues that all societies have a culturally-rooted template against which people come to understand the political legitimacy, or "thinkability," of institutions, ideas, policies, and procedures.

Author Biography: Michael G. Schatzberg is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (Indiana University Press) and Mobutu or Chaos? He is editor of The Political Economy of Kenya, The Political Economy of Zimbabwe, and co-editor (with I. William Zartman) of The Political Economy of Cameroon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253108654
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	11/13/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Michael G. Schatzberg is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (Indiana University Press) and Mobutu or Chaos? He is editor of The
Political Economy of Kenya, The Political Economy of Zimbabwe, and co-editor (with I. William Zartman) of The Political Economy of Cameroon.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments1. Metaphor and Matrix Methods Paternal and Familial Metaphors The Moral Matrix of Legitimate Governance Subjacency, Legitimacy, and the "Unthinkable"2. Representations of Power Power Defined Local Faces of Power Conclusion3. Parameters of The Political The Elision of Church and State The Elision of State and Civil Society Conclusion4. Alternative Causalities The Banality of Sorcery The Perils of Explanation in Congo/Zaïre Other Visions5. Matrix I-The Father-Chief: Rights and Responsibilities Nurture and Nourishment Punishment and Pardon Corruption and Its Limits6. Matrix II-Gender and Generation: Women, the Paternal Order, and the Alternation of Power Women and the Paternal Order Women as Counselors Evolving Norms Generational Rotation7. Democracy and the Logic of Legitimacy Epistemological Issues The Matrix Revisited Legitimacy, Democracy, and "Democratization"NotesSelected BibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Excavating in the cultural context of authority relations, Schatzberg (Univ. of Wisconsin) adds fuel to the long-simmering debate over the peculiarities of African politics—and the assumed universality of explanations of Western social science—by demonstrating that legitimate rule in Middle Africa rests on a moral matrix of key premises: the father—chief; the importance, yet limits of consumption; the role and limits of inclusion and exclusion (largely women); and the organic alternation (generational rotation) of power. Space permitting, a fifth premise, on communal aspects of African life, could also be demonstrated. This review cannot do justice to the rich discussion and varied evidence from popular culture that Schatzberg adduces. This remarkable evocation of the politics of ordinary beliefs discusses what is politically thinkable, suggesting a cultural logic differing from the supports of states and institutions in the West. This is the realm of subjacent politics, an arena of implicit models that guide and condition political behavior. While the mundane implication is that the practices of bureaucracy and democracy in Africa will be interpreted in a special way, i.e., patrimonial and communal, the overall thesis fits within a Weberian and Tocquevillian tradition of the importance of culture and ideology in the exercise of power. This courageous book could form the basis of symposia for years to come.June 2002"—H. Glickman, Haverford College

From the Publisher

Excavating in the cultural context of authority relations, Schatzberg (Univ. of Wisconsin) adds fuel to the long-simmering debate over the peculiarities of African politics—and the assumed universality of explanations of Western social science—by demonstrating that legitimate rule in Middle Africa rests on a moral matrix of key premises: the father—chief; the importance, yet limits of consumption; the role and limits of inclusion and exclusion (largely women); and the organic alternation (generational rotation) of power. Space permitting, a fifth premise, on communal aspects of African life, could also be demonstrated. This review cannot do justice to the rich discussion and varied evidence from popular culture that Schatzberg adduces. This remarkable evocation of the politics of ordinary beliefs discusses what is politically thinkable, suggesting a cultural logic differing from the supports of states and institutions in the West. This is the realm of subjacent politics, an arena of implicit models that guide and condition political behavior. While the mundane implication is that the practices of bureaucracy and democracy in Africa will be interpreted in a special way, i.e., patrimonial and communal, the overall thesis fits within a Weberian and Tocquevillian tradition of the importance of culture and ideology in the exercise of power. This courageous book could form the basis of symposia for years to come.June 2002

Haverford College - H. Glickman

"Excavating in the cultural context of authority relations, Schatzberg (Univ. of Wisconsin) adds fuel to the long-simmering debate over the peculiarities of African politics—and the assumed universality of explanations of Western social science—by demonstrating that legitimate rule in Middle Africa rests on a moral matrix of key premises: the father—chief; the importance, yet limits of consumption; the role and limits of inclusion and exclusion (largely women); and the organic alternation (generational rotation) of power. Space permitting, a fifth premise, on communal aspects of African life, could also be demonstrated. This review cannot do justice to the rich discussion and varied evidence from popular culture that Schatzberg adduces. This remarkable evocation of the politics of ordinary beliefs discusses what is politically thinkable, suggesting a cultural logic differing from the supports of states and institutions in the West. This is the realm of subjacent politics, an arena of implicit models that guide and condition political behavior. While the mundane implication is that the practices of bureaucracy and democracy in Africa will be interpreted in a special way, i.e., patrimonial and communal, the overall thesis fits within a Weberian and Tocquevillian tradition of the importance of culture and ideology in the exercise of power. This courageous book could form the basis of symposia for years to come." —H. Glickman, Haverford College, Choice, June 2002

— H. Glickman, Haverford College

Choice