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Measuring and explaining formal institutional persistence in French West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Maya Berinzon  and
Ryan C. Briggs
Maya Berinzon
Affiliation:
Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Ryan C. Briggs*
Affiliation:
Guelph Institute of Development Studies and Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
*
Email: rbriggs@uoguelph.ca
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Abstract

Colonial institutions are thought to be highly persistent, but measuring that persistence is difficult. Using a text analysis method that allows us to measure similarity between bodies of text, we examine the extent to which one formal institution – the penal code – has retained colonial language in seven West African countries. We find that the contemporary penal codes of most countries retain little colonial language. Additionally, we find that it is not meaningful to speak of institutional divergence across the unit of French West Africa, as there is wide variation in the legislative post-coloniality of individual countries. We present preliminary analyses explaining this variation and show that the amount of time that a colony spent under colonisation correlates with more persistent colonial institutions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 183 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

We would like to thank Gregory Mann for information on the indigénat, Elizabeth Moore at the Library of Congress for help accessing legislation, Joseph Djogbenou and Claire Adida for help trying to locate the Penal Code of Benin, and Ibrahim Khalil Sidibe for helping with the Penal Code of Guinea. Jemima Nguete, Esther Disamb, Tyler Oishi and Joseph Daniel provided research assistance.

References

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