02712nam a2200421 i 4500 CR9781009286176 UkCbUP 20250826121300.0 m|||||o||d|||||||| cr|||||||||||| 220405r20222021enk o ||1 0|eng|d 9781009286176 (ebook) 9781009286183 (paperback) UkCbUP eng rda UkCbUP f-sg--- JQ3396.A56 D428 2022 320.9663 23 Wilfahrt, Martha, author. 607749 Precolonial Legacies in Postcolonial Politics : Representation and Redistribution in Decentralized West Africa / Martha Wilfahrt. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2022. 1 online resource (xiii, 293 pages) : digital, PDF file(s). text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Cambridge studies in comparative politics Reissued as Open Access in 2022. Originally published in 2021. Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Oct 2022). 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 to this question: 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. Drawing on a multi-method research design, 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. Decentralization in government Senegal. 494785 Postcolonialism Senegal. 607750 Elite (Social sciences) Political activity Senegal. 607751 Group identity Political aspects Senegal. 607752 Public administration Senegal. 607753 Local government Senegal. 607754 Print version: 9781009286183 Cambridge studies in comparative politics. 36855 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009286176 320804 320804