Module four was our first systematic look at the case studies from Africa. The previous three modules established the conceptual and thematic background. During the first three modules, we covered a number of important concepts that are part and parcel of the twin concepts of federalism and decentralization. Now, the first three modules provided us with the necessary tools to approach the three federal cases of Africa. And despite the confluence of a number of relevant political, legal, economic, social, and historic factors, and the intended complexity. There are indeed certain things that matter more than others. It was these three case studies of Module 4, where we had a chance to apply an interdisciplinary analytical focus in pulling the three perspectives of society, politics and law. Our three case studies, South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia were all put through this interdisciplinary analytical focus, we had established earlier in model three. All three federal systems went through an examination of their legal, political and social foundations. While acknowledging that each and every case is unique, our interdisciplinary approach highlights the commonalities and the generalizable broad patterns that apply across the cases. Our job is to slowly map out these legal, political, and social patterns. That can help bring in a better understanding of the workings of federalism and decentralization. Moving beyond an analytical focus that rests only on formal institutional design. So far, no scholarly discipline or theoretical approach can claim a monopoly over the explanation. And that might not be a bad thing. This might, hopefully, temper the zeal of self-styled expos to jump in and prescribe federal and decentralized solutions to all ends. But, scholarly inquiry is a cumulative process. It's a cumulative process towards proper diagnosis. A prescription intended to cure an ailment can only work if the diagnosis is reliable. And as we had discussed in the overview concluding module one, our course is not about an ideal institutional design for federalism or decentralization. Ours is a quest for proper diagnosis. Prescription can only follow this. We are still learning so it is best not to try to run before we can master walking. There is a lot this course covers. We look at Federalism. We look at Decentralization. We look at the impact of these twin concepts of democracy, big governments and the management of diversity. We do all this in the context of Africa and while doing so we employ various scholarly perspectives from political science, constitutional law, philosophy and sociology. Almost everything under the Sun seems to matter but within six modules we cannot exhaustively cover every potential angle. Ours is more like, an introductory crash course into this complex terrain, that requires the aid of various scholarly disciplines. And do not forget, this is an introductory course. During the video lectures, we try to provide you with a general framework that tells you where the answers might be. But you have to undertake the search yourself. Looking at both the well lit as well as the dark corners in the search for the keys that might unlock the secrets of federalism and decentralization. What we have done in model four, is only a very general introduction to these three cases, as well as the relevant issues. There is much room for in-depth specialization on the topic. But more advanced knowledge would demand further reading. And we happen to have a number of these available for you in the course. As the co-editor of the journal Regional and Federal Studies Published by Routledge, as part of the Taylor Francis Group, I'm very glad to be able to offer course subscribers additional readings. Routledge is kindly made available a number of readings from the journal Regional and Federal Studies. And these are gonna be free of charge and I've selected 18 articles from the back catalog that could act as a stepping stone towards advanced knowledge and further specialization. I selected a number of articles on our case studies with this concern in mind. For this reason, module four has more additional reading than the rest of the modules. There are articles on South Africa, on Ethiopia, on Nigeria and most of them employing a particular perspective, in order to decode the politics of federalism and decentralization in their respective case studies. Some of these articles might be a little above the general introductory level we target in this course, but they give you a good sense of the state of federalism and decentralization scholarship and literature. Besides, these articles could surely help with the course contents themselves. But I wanted to make sure that they not only give you a good sense on the state of the scholarship on federalism and decentralization. But that these additional readings can also act as potential stepping stones, towards further specialization. For those of you who want to pursue the matter. You will see that these are all so-called refereed scholarly articles. That is, they've been subject to anonymous review process. Evaluating the scholarly merit of their contents. The scholarly review process is a rather demanding and a rather lengthy process. From the theoretical literature steering the research question, to the design of an appropriate research method. Employed to the scent. Various aspects get evaluated during the scholarly review process. In the end, only those meeting the journal's scholarly standards get accepted for publication. In the form of a journal article, what you see is in fact the eventual product that has gone through various revisions and rewrites. Inevitably, they are scholarly pieces of work written by and for students of federalism and decentralization. This means they are more in-depth and they are more focused in their scholarly goals. And you will see that most use a rather specialized language and engage in the theoretical debates and the theoretical literature and the scholarly literature. But by now you should be able to decode the contents and see how they fit into the federalism and decentralization literature. Not all of the readings are required, but they're strongly recommended, and the same goes for the decentralization readings of the next module. You don't have to read them but if you did that would be really really nice. So I'll see you in the next module. Thanks.
