Works in progress: Normative Politics in Africa
Politics in African countries is normally studied as if it is entirely practical: politicians and voters engage in transactional exchanges of material goods for political support, with votes going to the highest bidder. By contrast, my work shows how normative elements - such as political ideas, ideologies or values - shape both the ends and means of contestation in political contexts widely described, by actors both within and without, as bereft of principle. In my research I address questions like: How are material practices embedded in normative frameworks? If, as many African politicians argue, the primary aim of politics in African countries is development, then how is development understood?
My PhD thesis shows how politicians and voters engage with one particular normative concept that has been heavily promoted by international development organisations and donors: good governance. Values like accountability and transparency help explain political contestation around the Oyo State gubernatorial elections in 2011 and 2015. However, these core values are conceived of in ways that challenge widespread assumptions both about the nature of 'good governance' and corruption. The following works in progress extend this research agenda by exploring in more depth how values like accountability, transparency, enlightenment and middle class-ness play out in political competition.
My PhD thesis shows how politicians and voters engage with one particular normative concept that has been heavily promoted by international development organisations and donors: good governance. Values like accountability and transparency help explain political contestation around the Oyo State gubernatorial elections in 2011 and 2015. However, these core values are conceived of in ways that challenge widespread assumptions both about the nature of 'good governance' and corruption. The following works in progress extend this research agenda by exploring in more depth how values like accountability, transparency, enlightenment and middle class-ness play out in political competition.
How African governments use the idea of the “new non-poor”: the middle class as an enlightened public
The Middle Class emerged as a buzz-word in development in 2010 and has since elicited extensive celebration, cynicism and debate. The debate has evolved from asking what the middle classes themselves can do – are they are social force for development, democratisation or economic growth? – to asking what the ‘hype’ around the idea of the middle class is doing. What does the popularity of the idea represent, and how are different actors able to use the idea of the middle class?
For some, the middle class hype is simply an “ideological smokescreen”. By contrast this article argues that ideas are always doing some sort of ideological work. In the case of African governments at least, it argues that the idea of the middle classes is valuable not to cloak the real machinations of the elite, as some have suggested (Melber 2017), but to redefine the task of African governments away from poverty and towards something more aspirational. Drawing on the politics of urban renewal in Ibadan, Nigeria, it argues that African governments adopt the idea of a ‘non-poor’ public to legitimate a form of politics that relies constructing public consent for aspirational, future-oriented – that is, peculiarly middle class - development.
Invited for submission to a special issue of Africa: Journal of the International African Institute.
For some, the middle class hype is simply an “ideological smokescreen”. By contrast this article argues that ideas are always doing some sort of ideological work. In the case of African governments at least, it argues that the idea of the middle classes is valuable not to cloak the real machinations of the elite, as some have suggested (Melber 2017), but to redefine the task of African governments away from poverty and towards something more aspirational. Drawing on the politics of urban renewal in Ibadan, Nigeria, it argues that African governments adopt the idea of a ‘non-poor’ public to legitimate a form of politics that relies constructing public consent for aspirational, future-oriented – that is, peculiarly middle class - development.
Invited for submission to a special issue of Africa: Journal of the International African Institute.
“You can speak straight into the ear of the governor”: Accountability as Accessibility, good governance and populism in Southwest Nigeria
This article argues that in many contexts accountability is conceived of as accessibility, defined as the maintenance of semi-public spaces for direct face-to-face communication. In-depth interviews with leaders both in market associations, civil society and government in Southwest Nigeria provide evidence for the importance of “being accessible”, with several leaders identifying it as the single most important obligation of good governance. However, the tendency for governance reforms to promote technocratic modes of governance based on the insulation of experts from popular demands, leaves space for populist politicians to capitalise on their natural affinity for accessibility via un-mediated communication with constituents.
An early version of this paper was presented at the African Studies Association UK Conference in Cambridge in September 2016. Read the abstract here.
An early version of this paper was presented at the African Studies Association UK Conference in Cambridge in September 2016. Read the abstract here.
“Gender, ruling party support and authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa”
With Dan Paget. Much work has looked at the ‘gender gap’ in voting, in terms of how gender affects hypothetical voter preferences on a left-right spectrum, but less is known about how gender shapes how voters choose between actually existing political options. This paper combines regression analysis of Afrobarometre survey data, with a theoretical engagement with the literature on gender and political subjectivities in Africa to develop a new theory of how the public-private divide patterns political attitudes in democratising countries.
Transparency in People: When good governance policies make governments unknowable to their constituencies
Transparency is similarly important to political contestation in Nigeria but tends to be conceived in terms not of data, as in international discourses, but transparency “in people”. That is, leaders’ social connections, character and obligations should be transparent to their constituency. The paper develops this conception of transparency in people based on a number of interviews and then shows how policies that conform to donor prescriptions for good governance in fact contradict popular notions of transparency by tying state politicians into illegible global networks.
Presentation at ECAS 2017 Forthcoming.
Presentation at ECAS 2017 Forthcoming.
Northeast NigeriaI also have a sustained research interest in the politics of Northeast Nigeria. I have published on the dynamics of the Boko Haram insurgency and the state's response (see Framing and blaming: Discourse analysis of the Boko Haram uprising, July 2009).
In November 2017 I authored a report "Civil Society, Religion and the State: Mapping of Borno and Adamawa". The report was conducted for the GIZ programme ‘Support to strengthening resilience in North-East Nigeria’ which focuses on governance, livelihoods and infrastructure in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. It is based on fieldwork conducted in July-August 2017 in Maiduguri, Yola and Mubi.
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Copyright 2017