Sometimes, another precedent flows from thesenamely, pressure from outside the country but with some support internally as well for creating a transitional government of national unity. As Legesse (1973, 2000) notes, the fundamental principles that guide the consensus-based (decentralized) authority systems include curbing the concentration of power in an institution or a person and averting the emergence of a rigid hierarchy. Misguided policies at the national level combined with cultural constraints facing these social groups may increase exclusion and create seeds of future trouble. This brief overview of conflict in Africa signals the severity of the security challenges to African governance, especially in those sub-regions that feature persistent and recurrent outbreaks of violence. Introduction. Poor statesociety relations and weak state legitimacy: Another critical outcome of institutional fragmentation and institutional detachment of the state from the overwhelming majority of the population is weak legitimacy of the state (Englebert, 2000). The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. Why the traditional systems endure, how the institutional dichotomy impacts the process of building democratic governance, and how the problems of institutional incoherence might be mitigated are issues that have not yet received adequate attention in African studies. Extensive survey research is required to estimate the size of adherents to traditional institutions. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. At the same time, traditional institutions represent institutional fragmentation, which has detrimental effects on Africas governance and economic transformation. Towards a Definition of Government 1.3. The origins of this institutional duality, the implications of which are discussed in Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, are largely traceable to the colonial state, as it introduced new economic and political systems and superimposed corresponding institutional systems upon the colonies without eradicating the existed traditional economic, political, and institutional systems. . These events point to extreme state fragility and a loss of sovereign control over violence in the 11 affected countries, led by Nigeria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. Ousted royals such as Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) and King Idriss (Libya) may be replaced by self-anointed secular rulers who behave as if they were kings until they, in turn, get overthrown. Only four states in AfricaBotswana, Gambia, Mauritius, and Senegalretained multiparty systems. Within this spectrum, some eight types of leadership structures can be identified. Overturning regimes in Africas often fragile states could become easier to do, without necessarily leading to better governance. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. Second, the levels of direct battle deaths from these events is relatively low when compared with far higher levels in the wars of the Middle East. Security challenges can impose tough choices on governments that may act in ways that compound the problem, opening the door to heightened risks of corruption and the slippery slope of working with criminal entities. example of a traditional African political system. Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. Rules of procedure were established through customs and traditions some with oral, some with written constitutions Women played active roles in the political system including holding leadership and military positions. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. This principle is particularly relevant for diversity management, nation-building, and democratization in contemporary Africa. Tribe Versus Ethnic Group. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. While this attribute of the traditional system may not be practical at the national level, it can be viable at local levels and help promote democratic values. More frequently, this form of rule operates at the sub-state level as in the case of the emir of Kano or the Sultan of Sokoto in Nigeria or the former royal establishments of the Baganda (Uganda) or the Ashanti (Ghana). Beyond the traditional sector, traditional institutions also have important attributes that can benefit formal institutions. Freedom House calculated that 17 out of 50 countries it covered were free or partly free in 1988, compared to 31 out of 54 countries in these categories by 2015. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. The express prohibition in the African Charter against discrimination according to ethnic group constitutes a major step for the continent as a whole because the realization of this right will lead to greater economic opportunity for those people not of the same kinship as the head of government. When a seemingly brittle regime reaches the end of its life, it becomes clear that the state-society gap is really a regime-society gap; the state withers and its institutions become hollow shells that serve mainly to extract rents. West Africa has a long and complex history. Another layer represents the societal norms and customs that differ along various cultural traits. Traditional institutions already adjudicate undisclosed but large proportions of rural disputes. History. While empirical data are rather scanty, indications are that the traditional judicial system serves the overwhelming majority of rural communities (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. This concept paper focuses on the traditional system of governance in Africa including their consensual decision-making models, as part of a broader effort to better define and advocate their role in achieving good governance. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. Communities in the traditional socioeconomic space are hardly represented in any of the organizations of the state, such as the parliament, where they can influence policy and the legal system to reflect their interests. In other words, the transition from traditional modes of production to a capitalist economic system has advanced more in some countries than in others. Yet, governments are expected to govern and make decisions after consulting relevant stakeholders. Such post-electoral pacts reflect the conclusion that stability is more important than democracy. It is unlikely, however, that such harmony can be brought about by measures that aim to abolish the traditional system, as was attempted by some countries in the aftermath of decolonization. The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. Music is a form of communication and it plays a functional role in African society . Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). The arguments against traditional institutions are countered by arguments that consider traditional institutions to be indispensable and that they should be the foundations of African institutions of governance (Davidson, 1992). These features include nonprofits, non-profits and hybrid entities are now provide goods and services that were once delivered by the government. The usual plethora of bour- It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. Broadly speaking, indigenous systems of governance are those that were practiced by local populations in pre-colonial times. Reconciling the parallel institutional systems is also unlikely to deliver the intended results in a short time; however, there may not be any better alternatives. Nonhereditary selected leaders with constitutional power: A good example of this is the Gada system of the Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya. This proposal will be subject to a referendum on the constitutional changes required.16.2e 2.4 Traditional leadership Traditional leaders are accorded On the one hand, traditional institutions are highly relevant and indispensable, although there are arguments to the contrary (see Mengisteab & Hagg [2017] for a summary of such arguments). For example, the election day itself goes more or less peacefully, the vote tabulation process is opaque or obscure, and the entire process is shaped by a pre-election playing field skewed decisively in favor of the incumbents. Constitutions of postcolonial states have further limited the power of chiefs. These dynamics often lead to increased state fragility or the re-authoritarianization of once more participatory governance systems.12 The trend is sometimes, ironically, promoted by western firms and governments more interested in commercial access and getting along with existing governments than with durable political and economic development. Third, Africas conflict burden reflects different forms and sources of violence that sometimes become linked to each other: political movements may gain financing and coercive support from criminal networks and traffickers, while religious militants with connections to terrorist groups are often adept at making common cause with local grievance activists. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. The modern African state system has been gradually Africanized, albeit on more or less the identical territorial basis it began with at the time of decolonization in the second half of the 20th century. . Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. Council of elders: These systems essentially operate on consensual decision-making arrangements that vary from one place to another. The abolishment of chieftaincy does not eradicate the systems broader underlying features, such as customary law, decision-making systems, and conflict resolution practices. Such a transformation would render traditional institutions dispensable. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. A partial explanation as to why the traditional systems endure was given in the section Why African Traditional Institutions Endure. The argument in that section was that they endure primarily because they are compatible with traditional economic systems, under which large segments of the African population still operate. Additionally, inequalities between parallel socioeconomic spaces, especially with respect to influence on policy, hinder a democratic system, which requires equitable representation and inclusive participation. The colonial system constitutes the second section. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. There is one constitution and one set of laws and rules for ordinary people, and quite other for the ruling family and the politically connected elite. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. Enlightened leaders face a more complex version of the same challenge: how to find and mobilize the resources for broad-based inclusiveness? for a democratic system of government. The three countries have pursued rather different strategies of reconciling their institutional systems and it remains to be seen if any of their strategies will deliver the expected results, although all three countries have already registered some progress in reducing conflicts and in advancing the democratization process relative to countries around them. How these differences in leadership structures impinge on the broader institutions of resources allocation patterns, judicial systems, and decision-making and conflict resolution mechanisms is still understudied. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural, include belief in a supreme creator, belief in spirits, veneration of the dead, use of magic and traditional African . Traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. Since then, many more have been formulated, but the main themes and ideas have remained. The political systems of most African nations are based on forms of government put in place by colonial authorities during the era of European rule. Government and Political Systems. Rather, they often rely on voluntary compliance, although they also apply some soft power to discourage noncompliance by members with customary laws. Subsequent to the colonial experience, traditional institutions may be considered to be informal institutions in the sense that they are often not sanctioned by the state. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . This study points to a marked increase in state-based conflicts, owing in significant part to the inter-mixture of Islamic State factions into pre-existing conflicts. Non-official institutions and civil society may have very different ideas from the national government on this issue, leading to debates about legitimacy. Hoover scholars form the Institutions core and create breakthrough ideas aligned with our mission and ideals. Chieftaincy is further plagued with its own internal problems, including issues of relevance, succession, patriarchy, jurisdiction, corruption and intra-tribal conflict. Uneven access to public services, such as educational, health, and communication services, and the disproportionately high poverty rates in the traditional sector are manifestations of the sectors marginalization. Problems and Purpose. With the dawn of colonialism in Africa, the traditional African government was sys-tematically weakened, and the strong and influential bond between traditional lead- . First, many of the conflicts enumerated take place within a limited number of conflict-affected countries and in clearly-defined geographic zones (the Sahel and Nigeria; Central Africa; and the Horn.) There is strong demand for jobs, better economic management, reduced inequality and corruption and such outcome deliverables as health, education and infrastructure.22 Those outcomes require effective governance institutions. for in tradi-tional African communities, politics and religion were closely associated. These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. The long-term, global pushback by the leading authoritarian powers against liberal governance norms has consequences in Africa and other regions as governments directly act to close the space for civil society to operate. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? . However, their participation in the electoral process has not enabled them to influence policy, protect their customary land rights, and secure access to public services that would help them overcome their deprivation. The colonial state, for example, invented chiefs where there were no centralized authority systems and imposed them on the decentralized traditional systems, as among the Ibo of Eastern Nigeria, the Tonga in Zambia, various communities in Kenya, and the communities in Somalia. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. Government, Public Policy Performance, Types of Government. the system even after independence. This theme, which is further developed below, is especially critical bearing in mind that Africa is the worlds most ethnically complex region, home to 20 of the worlds most diverse countries in terms of ethnic composition.8. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. Thus, another report by PRIO and the University of Uppsala (two Norwegian and Swedish centers) breaks conflict down into state-based (where at least one party is a government), non-state-based (neither party is an official state actor), and one-sided conflicts (an armed faction against unarmed civilians). Africas rural communities, which largely operate under subsistent economic systems, overwhelmingly adhere to the traditional institutional systems while urban communities essentially follow the formal institutional systems, although there are people who negotiate the two institutional systems in their daily lives.