Why are some communities able to come together to improve their collective lot while others are not? Looking at variation in local government performance in decentralized West Africa, this book advances a novel answer: communities are better able to coordinate around basic service delivery when their formal jurisdictional boundaries overlap with informal social institutions, or norms. This book identifies the precolonial past as the driver of striking subnational variation in the present because these social institutions only encompass the many villages of the local state in areas that were once home to precolonial polities. The book develops and tests a theory of institutional congruence to document how the past shapes contemporary elite approaches to redistribution within the local state. Where precolonial kingdoms left behind collective identities and dense social networks, local elites find it easier to cooperate following decentralization. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘The book … reveals a very extensive reading of the literature … and therefore contains a very useful list of references for scholars interested in any of these topics. This deep dive into the relevant literatures allows the author to aptly frame and clearly explain how her argument builds on but also departs from existing work. … it is hard to understand the differences within rural West Africa without reference to Wilfahrt’s book.’

Joan Ricart-Huguet Source: The Journal of Development Studies