features of traditional african system of government

2. Maintenance of law and order: the primary and most important function of the government is to maintain law and order in a state. The purpose is to stress that such efforts and the attendant will Galizzi, Paolo and Abotsi, Ernest K., Traditional Institutions and Governance in Modern African Democracies (May 9, 2011). In a few easy steps create an account and receive the most recent analysis from Hoover fellows tailored to your specific policy interests. Chiefs such as those of the Nuer and Dinka are examples of this category. Ideally, African nations will benefit when civil society respects the states role (as well as the other way around); rather than one-sided advocacy, both sides should strive to create a space for debate in order to legitimize tolerance of multiple views in society. The traditional justice system, thus, does not have the power to grant any rights beyond the local level. The article has three principal objectives and is organized into four parts. The first type is rights-based legitimacy deriving from rule of law, periodic elections, and alternation of political power, the kind generally supported by western and some African governments such as Ghana and Senegal. In addition, resolution needs to be acceptable to all parties. Cookie Settings. The first objective of the article is to shed light on the socioeconomic foundations for the resilience of Africas traditional institutions. Against this broad picture, what is striking is the more recent downward trend in democratic governance in Africa and the relative position of African governance when viewed on a global basis. As Legesse (1973, 2000) notes, the fundamental principles that guide the consensus-based (decentralized) authority systems include curbing the concentration of power in an institution or a person and averting the emergence of a rigid hierarchy. The balance of power between official and non-official actors will likely shift, as networked activists assert their ability to organize and take to the streets on behalf of diverse causes. Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. In the centralized systems also, traditional leaders of various titles were reduced to chiefs and the colonial state modified notably the relations between the chiefs and their communities by making the chiefs accountable to the colonial state rather than to their communities (Coplan & Quinlan, 1997). There are several types of government that are traditionally instituted around the world. The kings and chiefs of Angola and Asante, for example, allowed European merchants to send their representatives to their courts. Problems and Purpose. The jury is still out on the merits of this practice. This approach to governance was prominent in the Oyo empire. These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. In new countries such as most of those in Africa,7 where the rule of law is in competition with the rule of men, leaders play a strikingly critical role, for good or ill. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. Additionally, the transaction costs for services provided by the traditional institutions are much lower than the services provided by the state. By 2016, 35 AU members had joined it, but less than half actually subjected themselves to being assessed. The political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. 20-27, at p. 21; Carey N. Vicenti 'The re-emergence of tribal society and traditional justice systems' Judicature, Vol. Click here to get an answer to your question Discuss any similarities between the key features of the fourth republican democracy and the traditional afri Legitimacy based on successful predation and state capture was well known to the Plantagenets and Tudors as well as the Hapsburgs, Medicis, and Romanovs, to say nothing of the Mughal descendants of Genghis Khan.14 In this fifth model of imagined legitimacy, some African leaders operate essentially on patrimonial principles that Vladimir Putin can easily recognize (the Dos Santos era in Angola, the DRC under Mobutu and Kabila, the Eyadema, Bongo, Biya, and Obiang regimes in Togo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, respectively).15 Such regimes may seek to perpetuate themselves by positioning wives or sons to inherit power. The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. Institutional systems emanate from the broader economic and political systems, although they also affect the performance of the economic and political systems. However, they are not merely customs and norms; rather they are systems of governance, which were formal in precolonial times and continue to exist in a semiformal manner in some countries and in an informal manner in others. As a result, it becomes highly complex to analyze their roles and structures without specifying the time frame. Transforming the traditional economic system is also likely to require embracing and utilizing the traditional institutional systems as vehicles for the provision of public services. Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Contentious Politics and Political Violence, Political Values, Beliefs, and Ideologies, Why African Traditional Institutions Endure, Authority Systems of Africas Traditional Institutions, Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1347, United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutions, Traditional Leaders and Development in Africa. While traditional institutions remain indispensable for the communities operating under traditional economic systems, they also represent institutional fragmentation, although the underlying factor for fragmentation is the prevailing dichotomy of economic systems. The colonial system constitutes the second section. The question then becomes, how to be inclusive?19 A number of African states have decentralized their political decision-making systems and moved to share or delegate authority from the center to provincial or local levels. South Africas strategy revolves around recognition of customary law when it does not conflict with the constitution and involves traditional authorities in local governance. Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). Virtually every group was involved in the . The Pre-Colonial Period: From the Ashes of Pharaohs to the Berlin Conference At the end of the prehistoric period (10 000 BC), some African nomadic bands began to Long-standing kingdoms such as those in Morocco and Swaziland are recognized national states. This kind of offences that attract capital punishment is usually . The scope of the article is limited to an attempt to explain how the endurance of African traditional institutions is related to the continents economic systems and to shed light on the implications of fragmented institutional systems. Features Of Traditional Government Administration. Greater access to public services and to productivity-enhancing technology would also help in enhancing the transformation of the subsistence sector. African governance trends were transformed by the geopolitical changes that came with the end of the Cold War. In addition, they have traditional institutions of governance of various national entities, including those surrounding the Asantehene of the Ashanti in Ghana and the Kabaka of the Buganda in Uganda. Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. Despite such changes, these institutions are referred to as traditional not because they continue to exist in an unadulterated form as they did in Africas precolonial past but because they are largely born of the precolonial political systems and are adhered to principally, although not exclusively, by the population in the traditional (subsistent) sectors of the economy. They are already governing much of rural Africa. In the past decade, traditional security systems utilized in commercial or government facilities have consisted of a few basic elements: a well-trained personnel, a CCTV system, and some kind of access control system. Because these governmental institutions reject the indigenous political systems on which African society was built, they have generally failed to bring political . A second conflict pattern can develop along the lines of ethnic cleavages which can be readily politicized and then militarized into outright ethnic violence. The end of colonialism, however, did not end institutional dichotomy, despite attempts by some postcolonial African states to abolish the traditional system, especially the chieftaincy-based authority systems. The Ibo village assembly in eastern Nigeria, the Eritrean village Baito (assembly), the council of elders (kiama) of the Kikuyu in Kenya, and the kaya elders of the Mijikenda in the coast of Kenya are among well-known examples where decisions are largely made in a consensual manner of one kind or another (Andemariam, 2017; Mengisteab, 2003). Safeguarding womens rights thus becomes hard without transforming the economic system under which they operate. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples. At times, these traditional security system elements are sufficient enough for some uses, but there's certainly no denying . One can identify five bases of regime legitimacy in the African context today. Figure 1 captures this turn to authoritarianism in postindependence Africa. 1. In many cases, the invented chieftaincies were unsuccessful in displacing the consensus-based governance structures (Gartrell, 1983; Uwazie, 1994). While empirical data are rather scanty, indications are that the traditional judicial system serves the overwhelming majority of rural communities (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. The post-colonial State, on the other hand . African countries are characterized by fragmentation of various aspects of their political economy, including their institutions of governance. Ethiopias monarchy ended in 1974 while the other three remain, with only the king of Swaziland enjoying absolute power. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. Some live in remote areas beyond the reach of some of the institutions of the state, such as courts. Posted: 12 May 2011. The debate is defined by "traditionalists" and "modernists." . The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . However, almost invariably the same functions, whether or not formally defined and characterized in the same terms or exercised in the same manner, are also performed by traditional institutions and their leaders. Note that Maine and . History. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era. The Aqils (elders) of Somalia and the chiefs in Kenya are good examples. The Chinese understand the basics. Other governance systems in the post-independence era and their unique features, if any. There is one constitution and one set of laws and rules for ordinary people, and quite other for the ruling family and the politically connected elite. In addition, according to Chirayath et al. A third, less often recognized base of legitimacy can be called conventional African diplomatic legitimacy wherein a governmenthowever imperfectly establishedis no more imperfect than the standard established by its regional neighbors. A related reason for their relevance is that traditional institutions, unlike the state, provide rural communities the platform to participate directly in their own governance. Thus, despite abolition efforts by postcolonial states and the arguments against the traditional institutions in the literature, the systems endure and remain rather indispensable for the communities in traditional economic systems. The indigenous political system had some democratic features. This provides wide opportunity for governments to experiment, to chart a course independent of Western preferences, but it can also encourage them to move toward authoritarian, state capitalist policies when that is the necessary or the expedient thing to do. 2. The relationship between traditional leadership and inherited western-style governance institutions often generates tensions. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. Wise leadership respects ethnic diversity and works toward inclusive policies. The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. Africas rural communities, which largely operate under subsistent economic systems, overwhelmingly adhere to the traditional institutional systems while urban communities essentially follow the formal institutional systems, although there are people who negotiate the two institutional systems in their daily lives. On the other hand, weak or destructive governance is sometimes the source of conflicts in the first place. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. Sometimes, another precedent flows from thesenamely, pressure from outside the country but with some support internally as well for creating a transitional government of national unity. Building an inclusive political system also raises the question of what levels of the society to include and how to assure that local communities as well as groups operating at the national level can get their voices heard. In Africa, as in every region, it is the quality and characteristics of governance that shape the level of peace and stability and the prospects for economic development. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. Authority in this system was shared or distributed to more people within the community. Large states and those with complex ethnic and geographic featurese.g., the DRC, Nigeria, Uganda, the Sudans, Ethiopiamay be especially prone to such multi-sourced violence. West Africa has a long and complex history. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. Comparing Ethiopia and Kenya, for example, shows that adherents to the traditional institutional system is greater in Ethiopia than in Kenya, where the ratio of the population operating in the traditional economic system is smaller and the penetration of the capitalist economic system in rural areas is deeper. Highlight 5 features of government. A long-term route to political and economic success has been comprehensively documented by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in their global study of why nations fail or succeed. The movement towards a formal state system is characterized by its emphasis on retribution and punishment. The features associated with this new form of governmental administration deal with smaller government responsibility for providing goods and services. African political elites are more determined than ever to shape their own destiny, and they are doing so. One of these will be the role and weight of various powerful external actors. First, many of the conflicts enumerated take place within a limited number of conflict-affected countries and in clearly-defined geographic zones (the Sahel and Nigeria; Central Africa; and the Horn.) Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. This concept paper focuses on the traditional system of governance in Africa including their consensual decision-making models, as part of a broader effort to better define and advocate their role in achieving good governance. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. Freedom House calculated that 17 out of 50 countries it covered were free or partly free in 1988, compared to 31 out of 54 countries in these categories by 2015. In the postcolonial era, their roles changed again. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? General Overviews. All the characteristic features of a traditional society are, for obvious reasons, reflected in the education system. Hoover scholars offer analysis of current policy challenges and provide solutions on how America can advance freedom, peace, and prosperity. Another common feature is the involvement of traditional authorities in the governance process, at least at the local level. This theme, which is further developed below, is especially critical bearing in mind that Africa is the worlds most ethnically complex region, home to 20 of the worlds most diverse countries in terms of ethnic composition.8. Government as a Structural Element of Society 2.2. Under conditions where nation-building is in a formative stage, the retribution-seeking judicial system and the winner-take-all multiparty election systems often lead to combustible conditions, which undermine the democratization process.

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