Cocodia, Jude. Peacekeeping and the African Union: Building Negative Peace. Routledge, 2018.

This book offers a detailed examination of the effectiveness of the peacekeeping operations of the African Union. Despite its growing reputation in peacekeeping and its status as the oldest continental peacekeeper, the performance of the African Union (AU) has hitherto not been assessed. This book fills that gap and analyses six case studies: Burundi, Comoros, Somalia, Mali, Darfur and the Central African Republic. From a methodological perspective it takes a problem-solving approach and utilizes process tracing in its analysis, with its standard for success resting on achieving negative peace (the cessation of violence and provision of security). Theoretically, this study offers a comprehensive list of factors drawn from peace literature and field experience which influence the outcome of peacekeeping. Beyond the major issues, such as funding, international collaboration and mandate, this work also examines the impact of largely ignored factors such as force integrity and territory size. The book modifies the claim of peace literature on what matters for success and advocates the indispensability of domestic elite cooperation, local initiative and international political will. It recognizes the necessity of factors such as lead state and force integrity for certain peace operations. In bringing these factors together, this study expands the peacekeeping debate on what matters for stability in conflict areas.

Source: book description culled from Routledge.com

Svanikier, Johanna Odonkor. "Political Elite Circulation: Implications for Leadership Diversity and Democratic Regime Stability in Ghana". In Elites: New Comparative Perspectives, edited by Masamichi Sasaki.  Leiden: Brill, 2008.

Svanikier applies Burton and Higley (2006) elite theory as an explanatory factor for political stability in Ghana. Burton and Higley argue that consensually united elites help democratic stability. Against pessimistic theories about neopatrimonialism, Svanikier demonstrates that such an elite-level consensus in favor of democracy exists in Ghana. Svanikier’s notion of elites expands beyond political elites to include traditional rulers, coastal merchant families and educated commoners. An interesting argument is that the diversity of Ghanaian elites - in a manner reflecting the diversity of Ghanaian society - accounts for the elite consensus around democracy compared to other countries where elites are more homogenous.

Ricart-Huguet, Joan. “Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa”. Comparative Political Studies, 54(14),(2021) 2546–2580.

The author asks what factors determine regional representation in government cabinets, with case studies from 16 countries between 1929 and 2010. She argues that ministers are not chosen to represent all regions equally, nor are they chosen in proportion to the population of regions. Instead, she argues that regions with the greatest share of primary education in the colonial period gain outsized representation in the civil service and this in turn leads to outsized representation in cabinet. Cases are drawn from West and East Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi

Hodzi, Obert. “China And Africa: Economic Growth and a Non-Transformative Political Elite”, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 36:2, (2018), 191-206.

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites and examine show they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development.

Source: article abstract.

Chafer, Tony. “Education and Political Socialisation of a National-Colonial Political Elite in French West Africa, 1936–47”, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 35:3, (September 2007) 437-458

This study examines the socialisation of the first generation of political elites in West Africa, arguing that their training in France explains their decisions as political leaders.

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Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of The Earth. Grove/Atlantic, Inc., (2007).

Amongst other arguments, Fanon suggests that the urban-dwelling native intellectual class has absorbed the ideologies of the colonizer and seeks to assimilate themselves into the colonized world. Only by making common cause with the lumpenproletariat in rural areas can independence movements be truly revolutionary.

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