Political Science in Africa: A Critical Review embodies a debate. Its 16 contributors — all of them political scientists or economists who have taught and worked In Africa and most of whom are African — share one concern: that the study of government and politics in Africa should be freed from the inherited methodological parameters and thematic concerns of Western (and especially American) political science. The authors share, too, an ethical commitment to a political science that, on the one hand, does not mythologize or mystify the political process in the Continent, and on the other hand, that is relevant to the interests of the mass of the population and concerned with their hopes and struggles to build a better society.
Author(s): Yolamu Barongo
Series: Africa Series
Publisher: Zed Press / Progressive and Socialist Books Depot
Year: 1983
Language: English
City: London / Ibadan
Introduction / Yolamu R. Barongo --
Part I. Content and relevance --
Teaching political science as a vocation in Africa / Omu Omoruyi --
Science vs. philosophy : The need for a relevant political science / Henry I. Ejembi --
Teaching political science in African universities : A problem-solving approach / Eme O. Awa --
The African peasantry : Neglected by African political science / Ebitini Chikwendu --
Class interest in the teaching of political science in African universities / Wang Metuge --
Towards a development oriented political science curriculum / Olatunde J.B. Ojo --
Part II. Scope and approaches --
Elections and election studies in Africa / Denis L. Cohen --
Public administration in Africa : Separate area or sub-discipline? / J.B. Ojo --
Political science and political economy / Bjorn Beckman --
Primary requirements for the unity of political science and economics / Eskor Toyo --
Imperialism and the politics of area studies / Okello Oculi --
Alternative appraoches to African politics / Yolamu R. Barongo --
Part III. Theory and methodology --
Non-ethnocentric flaws in competing non-Marxist paradigms of development / Eskor Toyo --
Dependency and revolutionary theory in the African situation / Franz J.T. Lee --
African elite theories and Nigerian elite consolidation : A political economy analysis / William D. Graf --
Essence and empiricism in African politics / Otwin Marenin --
The tyranny of borrowed paradigms and the responsibility of political science : The Nigerian experience / S. Egite Oyovbaire.
