Global Responsibility - Local Agenda The legitimacy of modern self-determination and African traditional authority

by Hinz, Manfred O.; Gatter, F. Thomas

• ISBN13: 9783825867829
• ISBN10: 382586782X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-30
• Publisher: Lit Verlag

Summary

In various African countries, governments have been forced to accept or establish decentralized structures in order to help the poor sections of their population gain access to and influence development resources. There is confusion about the role and function of such decentralized structures, as well as sustainable political approaches to the top-down transfer of government power in the context of local agendas. This book highlights major aspects of the legitimacy of local power as presented by both modern self-government structures and traditional communal authorities. Although the main focus is on Southern Africa (Namibia, South Africa, Botswana), examples from other regions (Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo) are also presented. Manfred O. Hinz is professor at the Centre for Applied Social Sciences, Windhoek. Thomas Gatter is researcher at the Centre of African and Migration Studies, Bremen.

Table of Contents

Global responsibility as a local agenda	p. 11
The project of "tradition" : constitutionalism in Africa	p. 17
Legitimacy, legitimacy crises of traditional rule in northern Ghana and the role of the state	p. 29
The past on the present : Kasikili/Sedudu Island case	p. 41
The legitimacy of modern self-government - the Namibian case	p. 63
Local self-government : the enlightening case of Germany	p. 85
Authority and the portrait of the ruler - Africa between tradition and modernity	p. 89
Direct democracy, alternative to representative forms of government : the Socialist Libyan Arab People's Gamahiriyya and the DRC	p. 99
The divided legitimacy : lessons from empirical research in Namibia	p. 111
"Walking in the middle of the road" : people's perspectives on the legitimacy of traditional leadership in Sekhukhune, South Africa	p. 127
Claims and challenges	p. 175
Aboriginal title and the right of internal self-determination under the South African Constitution	p. 189
Autochthonous peoples and their international legal protection - 16 theses	p. 203
The South African constitutional, policy and statutory framework for traditional leadership and institutions	p. 213
Environmental education for sustainable development in Namibia - a case study research on teachers' perceptions	p. 239
The African local and the global : frame of thought, legitimacy and changing tasks	p. 257
The rule of law and the new African constitutionalism : which law and which state? : theory, and experience	p. 273
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