This interdisciplinary and comparative study examines the Nigerian political system as a template for a historical and contemporary global comparative review and understanding of democracy-bureaucracy relations.

States at Work explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants.

An introduction to the politics and society of post-colonial Nigeria, highlighting the key themes of ethnicity, democracy, and development.

This book is a comprehensive theoretical and empirical investigation of the practical application of representative bureaucracy in Nigeria. Part I consists of four chapters, beginning with a theoretical and an historical overview of representative bureaucracy and policy making in Nigeria. This includes a discussion of the myths, contradictions, and the resultant dilemmas of administration. It highlights the complexities and intricacies of public policy-making, and examines the concept of representative bureaucracy including its meaning, forms, criticisms, prospects, limitations, and history. It also examines the need for administrative reforms, what reforms have taken place, and the country's search for appropriate bureaucracy for nation building. Part II details the objective and empirical facts regarding the representativeness of bureaucracy in Nigeria and its implications. Unlike past approaches, this book provides solid evidence of what difference representative bureaucracy actually makes on the ground. Using a novel and rigorous methodological approach, the actual impact of the civil service on policy-making is assessed and insights are provided into how a more representative bureaucracy affects policy. The approach is enhanced by the authors' advantage as Nigerian scholars who had both worked in the Nigerian political system as civil servant and university professors. This landmark study will be of value to scholars and students of Nigerian and African political, economic, and social development .

Offers new research on the vital importance of institutions, such as presidential term-limits in the African democratisation processes.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

Although everyone agrees on the need to make government work better, few understand public bureaucracy sufficiently well to offer useful suggestions, either theoretical or practical. In fact, some consider bureaucratic efficiency incompatible with democratic government. Douglas Yates places the often competing aims of efficiency and democracy in historical perspective and then presents a unique and systematic theory of the politics of bureaucracy, which he illustrates with examples from recent history and from empirical research. He argues that the United States operates under a system of "bureaucratic democracy," in which governmental decisions increasingly are made in bureaucratic settings, out of the public eye. He describes the rational, selfinterested bureaucrat as a "minimaxer," who inches forward inconspicuously, gradually accumulating larger budgets and greater power, in an atmosphere of segmented pluralism, of conflict and competition, of silent politics. To make the policy process more competitive, democratic, and open, Yates calls for strategic debate among policymakers and bureaucrats and insists that bureaucrats should give a public accounting of their significant decisions rather than bury them in incremental changes. He offers concrete proposals, applicable to federal, state, and local governments, for simplifying the now-chaotic bureaucratic policymaking system and at the same time bolstering representation and openness. This is a book for all political scientists, policymakers, government officials, and concerned citizens. It may well become a classic statement on the workings of public bureaucracy.