Michigan State University Libraries

Description:: This paper briefly examines the unprecedented political events in Malawi that began in March 1992 and culminated in multi-party elections in which Dr. Banda's regime yielded the reigns of power to a democratically elected government. Using detailed results of the 1994 presidential and parliamentary elections, the paper argues that regionalism rather than ethnicity appears to be the dominant factor influencing voting patterns at the national level. Regionalism appears to have resulted in the formation of three super ethnic groups each with its own regional base. Elites are securing political power by redefining the ethnic equation; and their competition for scarce resources and political power continues to occur in the guise of spatial units, among which the super ethnic region is the more salient, and has consequently become the most influential factor in elections.
Date Issued:: 1997-06-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: African Journal of Political Science

Description:: This paper takes a critical look at the popular issue of participation, and suggests that a major weakness in the literature of participation is its failure to deal with the realities of statism in the modern world, and particularly the Third World. The paper argues that while many proponents of participation theory claim a commitment to socialism and marxism their views in fact derive from a blend of individualism, populism and anarchism, ideologies which incorporate a basic distrust of the state. In effect the impact of this is that participation theory has an implied distrust of state sponsored development. This distrust, the paper argues, is not necessarily a fair reflection of the current state of affairs in the Third World.
Date Issued:: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Journal of Social Development in Africa

Description:: Review of: Joel Greer and Erik Thorbecke. Food, poverty and consumption patterns in Kenya. Geneva: International Labour Office, World Employment Programme, 1986
Date Issued:: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Journal of Social Development in Africa

Description:: For over a decade now, southern Ghana has witnessed a growing influx of young women and teenage girls-whose sole business is to engage in the lie ad porterage of goods. This paper offers information on who these women and girls are, why they migrate from their places of origin, why they engage in that business and the plans they have for the future. A non-random sample of 700 subjects were selected for the study. Unstructured interviews and personal observation were used as the tools for data collection. It was found that most of the woman porters hail from the savanna zones of northern Ghana and adjoining areas of Burkina Faso and Togo. They move down south to work and save money for various forms of investment. The paper attributes the push factor, poverty, to the interplay of natural phenomena and human agency. Suggestions for policy measures are offered.
Date Issued:: 2003-07-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Journal of Social Development in Africa