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Archive for April, 2011

Election Appeals and Nigeria’s Election Protests

Will Election Appeals Pacify Nigeria’s Protesters?  Nigeria’s elections in 2003 and 2007 generated literally hundreds of challenges to results at the national, state, and local levels.  (See Nigeria: Tribunals and the 2003 Elections, by the Legal Defence Centre, 2004.)  As these cases weaved their way through courts and tribunals, scholars and election observers pointed to [...]

April 23, 2011 · admin · One Comment
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• FEATURED RESEARCH: “Questioning Tocqueville in Africa”

  "Questioning Tocqueville in Africa: Continuity and Change in Civil society During Nigeria’s Democratization"

  Alexis de Tocqueville's influence on the democratization literature has encouraged the idea that transitions require an independent civil society. However this view reifies boundaries between state and society, and it over-predicts civil society confrontation with governments. Drawing upon Hegel, I develop a model that clusters organizations according to goal orientation and autonomy. I then examine civil society during Nigeria’s democratization. I attribute changes in autonomy and goal orientation of organizations to transnational organizing, coalition building, and repression. My findings question the assumption that autonomous organizations will challenge the state.

  (This article appears in the February 2011 issue of Democratization, vol. 18, no. 1)