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Federalism & Decentralization: Evaluating Africa's Track Record

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Universiteit Leiden

Federalism & Decentralization: Evaluating Africa's Track Record

83 個評分

In this political science course you will learn about the twin concepts of federalism and decentralization. You will develop an understanding of the core ideas that federalism and decentralization rest on, and study the building blocks that make them both work. Following a general overview of both federalism and decentralization, we will examine a number of case-studies from Africa where federalism and decentralization have been changing the continent’s political landscape in the last twenty years, coinciding with unprecedented levels of economic growth. What is federalism and how is it different from decentralization? What are the core ideas behind these concepts? Do federalism and decentralization enhance democracy, governance and diversity? Is that why virtually all countries south of the Sahara are now either federal or decentralized? We will be looking at Africa's track-record in order to answer these questions. By the end of the course, you will have acquired a general knowledge of federalism/decentralization and additional empirical knowledge of a number of African cases. Upon completion you will also acquire the ability to unpack and understand a variety of potential consequences of federalism/decentralization reforms in the developing world.

從本節課中

Welcome to this course. The Three Promises of Federalism and Decentralization

Great that you are joining us. In this course you will learn about Federalism & Decentralization in Africa. Before you start, we invite you to first go through our intro module and introduce yourself in the forum to meet your fellow learners. If you encounter any difficulties while studying, please let us know in the forum. For technical difficulties or questions regarding the course certificate, you can always contact the Coursera Learner Helpdesk. Good luck & we hope you enjoy studying in this course. In this first module you can also find the introduction video and an exploration of the three promises of Federalism and Decentralization.

Introduction to the Course6:11

與講師見面

Dr. Jan Erk

Fellow, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, (STIAS)

Welcome to our massive open, online course on federalism and decentralization.

My name is Jan Erk.

I teach political science at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

I'm also the co-editor of the journal regional and federal studies and some of

the readings are going to be available for you to follow in this course.

This is an international refereed journal, which acts as a venue for academic

research dealing with various aspects of federalism and decentralization.

Now, our course is a general introduction to these two concepts,

that is, federalism and decentralization.

The formal title is Federalism and Decentralization and

the reason why we have this is precisely because of the hope the two concepts

presented to many countries around the world, particularly in the global south.

Federalism and decentralization are normally studied

within the context of the federations of the western world.

But in this course, we will combine that rich scholarly tradition with a new,

substantive context.

Since the 1990s almost all countries

to the south of the Sahara have become either federal or decentralized.

It is for this reason that the second part of the formal title of our course is

evaluating Africa's track record.

Our university town Leiden

has a special place in this rich scholarly tradition on federalism.

In the early 1600s, Leiden welcomed a small group of so

called dissenters from England, fleeing religious and political persecution.

During their stay in Leiden,

the English dissenters adopted a covenant to manage their internal affairs.

The same covenant also regulated their external relationship

to various lay authorities in the Netherlands.

Directly to the city of Leiden as well as the province of Holland, and

indirectly to the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

These dissenters were to become the pilgrim fathers of America.

And what they established here in Leiden, the mix of self-rule and

shared rule in a system of multiple orders of authority, was to be the blueprint for

the American colonies.

Their experience eventually culminated in the Federalist Papers

which led to the American constitution.

That is what you see on our course logo.

We'll be looking at this mix of self-rule and

shared rule in a different geographical context.

Africa.

And, that explains why our course logo has the Federalist papers framed

within the African continent.

Our course is composed of six modules examining federalism and

decentralization through different angles.

Module 1 is titled The Three Promises of Federalism, and

it's a general introduction to the Federalism and

Decentralization literatures as well as the three promises these twin concepts

in terms or democracy, good governance, and diversity.

Module 2 looks at the core ideas in Federalism and

Decentralization, in particular the combination of self rule and

shared rule, the distribution of political power between orders of government, and

the presence of multiple identities that allows individuals to identify

with both the central and the regional levels of government.

In model 3, we examine the building blocks that make Federalism and

Decentralization work.

We start with the constitution and the division of powers between the branches of

Government and the orders of Government included therein.

The role of courts and a National Bill of Rights and the regional representation in

central institutions such as executives, parliaments, bureaucracy's and

security services, and the underlying sociodemographic factors.

In models 4 and 5 we start our African case studies.

We first look at federalism in South Africa, Ethiopia,

Nigeria, we then turn our attention to decentralization.

Here in comparative terms, we look at things like regional economic inequality,

limits that administrative capacity as well as close links between tradition and

institutional design in decentralization.

In the concluding model that is 6, we wrap things up by looking at the role of

international organizations in promoting federalism and decentralization in Africa.

The final section also looks at the interaction between the imported

institutional blueprints and

the local home grown traditions and seeks to distill broader lessons.

Each module will have three regular video lectures,

a general overview, as well as a multi-choice quiz.

Those following the advanced track are also expected to submit an additional

country review at the end of the course.

By the end of the course,

you will have acquired a general knowledge of federalism and decentralization.

And upon completion, you'll also acquire the ability to unpack and

understand a variety of potential consequence of federalism and

decentralization reforms in the developing world, particularly in Africa.

Furthermore, you'll acquire an in-depth knowledge about the politics of

federalism and decentralization in a number of African countries specifically.

While I will be the person you will be seeing on the screen for most of the time,

there is in fact a behind-the-scenes team that has made the course possible.

Miranda Verboon and Gerrit Krol are the two project assistants

who have helped build the course and will ensure its smooth function.

Miranda and Gerrit are both graduate students and

in addition to their role in the preparation of the course,

they will also be supervising the online interaction with the course participants.

I thank them, and I welcome you to Federalism and

Decentralization Evaluating Africa's track record.

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