Theories wiki > > Theories Herbst- Ashley Smith
Theories:
- Leaders are faced with three sets of issues when constructing their states: the cost of the expansion of domestic power infrastructure; the nature of national boundaries; and the design of the state systems. Africa’s political geography influenced the decisions of leaders in the same way that Europe’s political geography shaped the decision making of its leaders.
- Ecological factors such as lack of rainfall make the area inhospitable creating low population density. The models of control for an African nation must be influenced by these differentiated zones that range from coastal to forest. Accounting for these ecological differences is expensive.
- Comparing various African countries and analyzing the implication for state unification by their shapes, sizes, and population distributions in addition to their history of road construction, the effective allocation of land, managing currency, and definition of citizenship.
- Africa’s boundaries were drawn by colonizers and these boundaries are rarely face military threat to their power and this is significantly different from Europe whose consolidation of power and implementation of boundaries comes as a result of war. The legacy of colonialism guided African countries into statehood because there were already boundaries drawn but there is a lacking in the areas of national identity, revenue extraction capacities, and administrative system.
- The strategy that was developed by post-colonial leaders to address low population density in areas with harsh physical conditions was gaining control over a core political area that is categorized as either the capital or the critical urban area then rural areas. The power is strongest in the urban areas then radiates outward lessening as it proceeds to the rural areas.
- Less rigid adherence to the nation-state model, more tolerance of succession movements, nonrecognition of the sovereignty of failed governments and stronger promotion of supranational identities are solutions for addressing the failure of states in Africa.
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Ashley,
Your first bullet point sums up the book’s argument accurately. The other points that you are making, while accurate in terms of what the book says, might go better under other wikis — evidence, methods, and concepts. Have another look and see if you can really separate these into their appropriate categories.
• Leaders are faced with three sets of issues when constructing their states:
1) the cost of the expansion of domestic power infrastructure which is how it expensive it will be to expand infrastructure such as road building projects. It was theorized that countries that don’t have roads in place shouldn’t build them because it will be too expensive. In the results countries that didn’t have roads had very difficult geography that made construction costly and countries that did have roads had easier geography that made construction cheaper.
2) the nature of national boundaries; The boundaries in African states are a result of colonization while European boundaries are defined and created by war. Boundaries can be currency or it can be the defined shape of the territory.
3) The design of the state systems is so that weak states are supported. State systems have a beginning in colonialism and it has been shaped by post colonial rulers.
Africa’s political geography influenced the decisions of leaders in the same way that Europe’s political geography shaped the decision making of its leaders.
Yes, better. Make sure you are comfortable comparing this theory to some other theory of state formation that we’ve read about and consider the theoretical strengths and weaknesses of each? (Not something I want you to do here, just by way of preparing for final exam).
Ashley does a good job summarizing the main argument Herbst develops in his book. It is important to mention that he seeks to move from theoretical generalization about the state-building struggle. Scholars often fail into Westernized theories that do not apply to every place in the world. Herbst analyzes the shape that politics take in Africa and the pre conditions for those results. Ashley effectively captures the struggles that African leaders face in the process of state-building.