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Urban Government and Nation Building in East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Recent years have witnessed a rebirth of interest in the study of local government (or local political systems, depending on one's theoretical orientation). This has been especially true among political Scientists seeking to develop new approaches more readily applicable to the political systems of the so-called emerging nations. It has become apparent to an increasing number of research workers that grandiose macro-theory of the Almond variety, while impressive on paper, may be of very little use in the field.1 Thus an attempt is now being made to return to the micro-level in order to gain greater conceptual clarity, and an understanding of behaviour in political situations. Unfortunately much of the new thrust to develop micro-level theory has been hampered by the continuing use of old, and at least partially outdated, tools, or what I have chosen to call (perhaps unjustifiably) ‘the public-administration approach’.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

Page 577 note 1 See Almond, G. A. and Coleman, J. S., Politics of the Developing Areas (Princeton, 1959),Google Scholar and Almond, G. A. and Powell, G. B., Comparative Politics: a developmental approach (Boston, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 577 note 2 For an ‘in-depth’ discussion of the changes in post-war British colonial policy and the emergence of development-oriented local government, see Hicks, Ursula K., Development from Below (London, 1961).Google Scholar

Page 578 note 1 Fred G. Burke, ‘Local Governance and Nation Building in East Africa: a functional analysis’; Syracuse University, Program of East African Studies, Occasional Paper 9, September 1964.

Page 579 note 1 Williams, Babatunde A. and Walsh, Anna Marie, Urban Government for Metropolitan Lagos (New York, 1968).Google Scholar

Page 579 note 2 On formalism in local government studies, see Riggs, Fred W., Administration in Developing Countries (Boston, 1964), especially pp. 1519.Google Scholar

Page 579 note 3 L. R. Cliffe, C. J. Gertzel, J. W. Harbeson, et al., ‘Proposals for Local Government Reform in Kenya’; Nairobi, Institute for Development Studies, Discussion Paper 31, September 1966.

Page 579 note 4 Werlin, Herbert H., ‘The Nairobi City Council: the problems of co-operation in African local politics’; Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar

Page 579 note 5 See Foster, George M., Traditional Cultures and the Impact of Technological Change (New York, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 579 note 6 See Burke, Fred G., Local Government and Politics in Uganda (Syracuse, 1964), p. 248.Google Scholar

Page 580 note 1 Epstein, A. L., ‘The Network and Urban Social Organization’, in The Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (Livingstone), 29 06 1961, p. 56.Google Scholar See also Bott, Elizabeth, Family and Social Network (London, 1957).Google Scholar A more recent work, summarising many earlier studies of networks in Central Africa, is Mitchell, J. Clyde (ed.), Social Networks and Urban Situations (Manchester, 1969).Google Scholar

Page 580 note 2 Epstein, loc. cit. p. 57.

Page 580 note 3 Ibid.

Page 580 note 4 See Truman, David, The Governmental Process (New York, 1951).Google Scholar

Page 581 note 1 A good method of estimating the degree of influence or social control exercised by a network is by computing network densities. Density = actual number of relationships between people in a network/total number of possible relationships among people in the network. For detailed explanation, see Barnes, J. A., ‘Networks and Political Process’, in Swarts, Marc (ed.), Local Level Politics (Chicago, 1968), pp. 107–29.Google Scholar

Page 581 note 2 Epstein, loc. cit. pp. 58–9.

Page 582 note 1 Cf. Mayer, P., Townsmen or Tribesmen (Cape Town, 1961),Google Scholar especially ch. 18, ‘Network, Culture and Change’.

Page 582 note 2 He further states that ‘collectivities will only be important if there are no suitable small groups, or if the small group members differ amongst themselves and subject the individual to cross pressures.’ Hoad, P., ‘The Use of the Reference Group Concept in the Study of Social Change in Africa’, in East African Institute of Social Research: Conference Papers (Kampala), 01 1968, section C.Google Scholar

Page 584 note 1 The word, ‘elect’, a combination of clique and sect, basically means a group in a transitional or prismatic society which ‘combines both primary and associational features, ascription and achievement, particularism and universalism, and diffuseness and specificity’. Riggs, op. cit. See especially pp. 164–73 for a discussion of clects.

Page 585 note 1 William, J. and Hanna, Judith S., ‘The Political Structure of Urban-centered African Communities’, in Miner, Horace (ed.), The City in Modern Africa (New York, 1967), p. 158.Google Scholar

Page 585 note 2 The case for the use of pluralism theory is made very adequately by Lofchie, Michael F., ‘Political Theory and African Politics’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), VI, I, 05 1968.Google Scholar

Page 585 note 3 Sources from Central, South, and West Africa have also been considered.

Page 585 note 4 Most urban dwellers in East Africa are first-generation residents. See Elkan, Walter, ‘Circular Migration and the Growth of Towns in East Africa’, in International Labour Review, (Geneva), XCVI, 12 1967, p. 582.Google Scholar

Page 586 note 1 Ibid. p. 586.

Page 587 note 1 See Coult, Alan D., ‘The Structuring of Structure’, in American Anthropologist (New York), LXVIII, 1966, pp. 438–43.Google Scholar

Page 587 note 2 For a good explanation of cultural and structural urbanisation, see Mayer, op. cit. p. 283.

Page 588 note 1 Leslie, J. A. K., A Survey of Dares Salaam (London, 1963), pp. 273–4.Google Scholar

Page 589 note 1 Swantz, Lloyd W., ‘Inter-communication between the Urban and Rural Zaramo in the Dar es Salaam Area’, in East African Institute of Social Research: Conference Papers (Kampala), 01 1968, section C.Google Scholar

Page 590 note 1 Southall, Aidan, ‘The Nature of Urban Settlement in East Africa’; Syracuse University, Faculty Seminar Paper, 1968.Google Scholar

Page 590 note 2 Epstein, loc. cit.

Page 591 note 1 Cf. Hanna and Hanna, loc. cit. p. 59.

Page 591 note 2 See French, Peter, ‘The Changing Nature of the Political Elite in Independent Africa’, in Chaput, Michael (ed.), Patterns of Elite Formation and Distribution in Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia; Syracuse University, Program of East African Studies, Occasional Paper 42, 10 1968Google Scholar; and also Lionel Tiger, ‘Bureaucracy and Urban Symbol Systems’, in Miner, op. cit.

Page 591 note 3 Good documentation of such practices is provided by Greenstone, J. D., ‘Corruption and Self Interest in Kampala and Nairobi: a comment on local politics in East Africa’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History (The Hague), VIII, 2, 1966.Google Scholar