The renewed scholarly interest in the connections between taxation, state building efforts, and long-term economic development has revitalized the study of historical tax systems. How did today’s states initially acquire ‘fiscal capacity’, and why was this process more successful in some places than in others? Since African tax systems are...
This study in media anthropology uses participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and recorded broadcasts to analyze how people use FM radio technology in the Koutiala area of southeast Mali, and particularly how they use FM radio to produce locality by relating audience members to one another, to the dominant national culture,...
In this essay, key features of Nigerian governance since independence are reviewed. The military had ruled the county for thirteen years and civilian politicians, in two phases, had done so for ten. Military governments involved significant participation by civilians, so there was overlap between these successive systems. Moreover, the military...
The forcible ending of Nigeria’s second attempt at constitutional civilian rule since independence in 1960 is a mixed story. The 1983 general elections were tarnished by violence and fraud. They took place in a context of economic decline and policy disarray. However, the opposition still retained an important share of...
This article resumes the exploration of Nigeria’s political economy and the entrenchment of a prebendal mode of attitudes and behaviors. It takes up the shift to a mono-mineral export economy, the socio- economic proclivities of the dominant class, the considerable expansion in the state’s economic role, and the distinct pattern...
The building of the Second Republic required a military government, which had been deeply engaged in shaping the Federation over almost fifteen years, performing as an impartial umpire in the electoral choice of its successors. This complex process is dissected in this article together with an analysis of the relative...
The building of a trans-ethnic political space, and a nation that commands the loyalty of the country’s citizens, have been persistent aspirations of Nigerian governments. The 1979 elections demonstrated that, however much political party leaders may seek to build a national following, they are “trapped” by ethnic and other sectional...