African Anarchy: Is it the States, Regimes, or Societies That are Collapsing?

Abstract

African states have had their functions so weakened that some speak of collapse and anarchy; hence they conflate the collapse of state services with the collapse of a regime and with the collapse of social order. In fact the three are not synonymous. Though the state, defined in institutional terms, may collapse, there are examples that regimes can live on through their retention of juridical status and through the establishment of an informal and parallel state system. Even when all central control evaporates, militia-run structures or more traditional kinship organisations have been found in some circumstances, preventing total social disorder. Surprise that communal organisation exists beyond the state only reveals deep-rooted normative assumptions.