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The Military Decade in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Aristide R. Zolberg
Aristide R. Zolberg
Affiliation:
Political Science at the University of Chicago
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Extract

After a decade of play, the score in the match pitting men in uniform against politicians is nearly even. About half of the new states of Black Africa have remained uninterruptedly under civilian rule while in the other half each has experienced at least one coup in which armed forces—military and police—have played a prominent role. Most of the coups were followed by the establishment of some form of military government. Sometimes the original coup leaders were overthrown by others; sometimes they returned to their barracks, hovering about the seats of power; sometimes they or others abruptly interrupted “civilianization.”

Type
Review Articles
Information
World Politics , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , January 1973 , pp. 309 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1973

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References

1 In terms of regional coverage, however, the case studies contained in these books cover only about one-third of the new states of Black Africa in which men in uniform have achieved prominence.

2 The phenomenon of class formation has been analyzed by Cohen, Michael in “Urban Policy and Political Conflict in Africa: A Study of the Ivory Coast,” umpubl. Ph. D. diss. (University of Chicago 1971).Google Scholar

3 Zolberg, , “The Structure of Political Conflict in the New States of Tropical Africa,” American Political Science Review, LXII (March 1968), 72Google Scholar (quoted by Luckham in Panter-Brick, p. 58).

4 Nordlinger, Eric A., “Soldiers in Mufti: The Impact of Military Rule upon Economic and Social Change in die Non-Western States,” American Political Science Review, LXIV (December 1970), 1148.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., 1147. He also mentions that die correlation may be spurious (note 51).

6 The exchange of overt signals between the Malagasy Army and the French Government in 1972 confirms the process under discussion. The army completed its intervention only after the French indicated mat they were no longer overly concerned with the political survival of a friendly, but increasingly ineffective, civilian president.