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Trends in Leadership Succession and Regime Change in African Politics Since Independence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Ladun Anise
Ladun Anise*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Extract

It is the passion for equality which is at the root of sedition.… When one begins with an initial error it is inevitable that one should end badly. —Aristotle

Leadership succession and regime change lie at the center of two perennial problems of governance: (1) how to ensure the political continuity of any regime without endangering the political stability of the political community; (2) how to protect both the regime and the political community against the natural disposition of those in power to manipulate their office so that they could extend their terms of office or succeed themselves against the provisions of written or unwritten rules of managing political power and succession rights. There can be little doubt, then, that the political acts that surround leadership succession and regime change constitute a most serious aspect of political life in any society. In all political systems in general, and in African politics in particular, such acts constitute an important index of the development or deterioration of politics.

The renewed focus on Africa since the middle 1950s as a subject of political inquiry and theorizing has contributed greatly to the existing body of literature on political development, modernization and related subfields of Comparative Politics. Unfortunately, this rather extensive body of literature has not provided us with a definitive knowledge of the dynamics of social and political change. In this regard, major events in African politics have continued to cast doubts on the validity of many an earlier theoretical formulation and expectation.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , December 1974 , pp. 507 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974

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Footnotes

*

This article has been adapted from a paper presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the ASA in Philadelphia, November 8-11, 1972. The author acknowledges the valuable and critical comments of Professor Philip Morgan of the Department of Political Science, Emory University; Professor Peter French of the Department of History and Government, St. Lawrence University; and Professor Victor T. LeVine of the Department of Political Science, Washington University (St. Louis) on earlier drafts of this article. The research from which this article grew was made possible by research grants from the Faculty Research Grant and the Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh. Of course I, alone, am responsible for the views contained in this article.

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