Book chapter written by 2009 Revitalizing Development Studies Fellow Nicolette D. Manglos, featured in the book series, Political Power and Social Theory, Volume 28, edited by Professor Julian Go:

Analysts of modern-day sub-Saharan Africa have argued that its “neopatrimonial regimes,” descending from pre-colonial polities, translate badly to the scale of the nation-state and hinder democratic accountability. In this paper, I argue by contrast that the problem with today’s failed or failing states is that they are not patrimonial enough, if we understand patrimonialism in classic Weberian terms as a system based on traditions of reciprocal interdependence between rulers and citizens, and characterized by personal but malleable ruling networks. I make this argument by showing how the Asante Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries shifted from a working model, incorporating both patrimonial and bureaucratic forms of authority, to an exploitative one that reneged on its traditional commitments to the wider public. The cause of this shift was the expansion of exchange with European nations as a rival avenue to power and wealth. This problem continues today, where African rulers are incentivized by the demands of global banks, the United Nations, and G20 governments rather than internal authority traditions, thus limiting their ability to establish locally effective and publically accountable hybrids of patrimonial and bureaucratic governance.

Publication Details

Title
Innovations in Trust: Patrimonial and Bureaucratic Authority in the Asante Empire of West Africa
Authors
Manglos, Nicolette D.
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publish Date
April 2015
ISBN
978-1-78441-758-1
Citation
Manglos, Nicolette D., Innovations in Trust: Patrimonial and Bureaucratic Authority in the Asante Empire of West Africa (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, April 2015).
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