Citizenship, Constitutional Legitimacy and Identity in Post-Colonial African Nation-States
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CITIZENSHIP, CONSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY AND IDENTITY IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICAN NATION-STATES Berhane Berhe Araia A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology Chapel Hill 2006 Approved by: Advisor: Professor Judith Blau Reader: Professor Kenneth Bollen Reader: Professor Charles Kurzman Reader: Professor Julius N’yangoro Reader: Professor Bereket Habte Selassie ABSTRACT BERHANE BERHE ARAIA: Citizenship, Constitutional Legitimacy and Identity in Post- Colonial African Nation-States. (Under the direction of Judith Blau) The dissertation investigates the institutional and attitudinal effects of postcolonial citizenship on the stability of nation states and on the popular attitudes of citizens of selected African nations. The study of how citizens are connected to and perceive the state is an important question in understanding the long-term sustainability of African democratic systems. The dissertation is organized into three distinct chapters that are tied by common theoretical and empirical questions. Each employs different methods and levels of analysis in answering fundamental political questions about African postcolonial societies. These crucial questions revolve around institutional differences between urban and rural sectors and citizens of Africa. It studies the effects of urban- rural institutional dualisms in geographic, legal and citizenship dimensions. Furthermore, this work develops various statistical models to test the cross-national differences on various issues of importance to the continent. It looks into the effect of institutional dualism on state stability, constitutionalism and national identity in postcolonial African states and societies. Statistical analyses confirm that there is strong evidence for duality between urban and rural citizens in their support of constitutions and endorsement of traditional form of authority. This duality is stronger when inter-ethnic differences are controlled. Results also confirm that there is fundamental urban-rural duality in citizens’ construction of national and group identity in African states. ii I dedicate this dissertation to my late parents Berhe Araia and Negeset WoldeGebriel. I know you will be proud of my accomplishments, as always. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank to all the people who have contributed to the project. I am thankful to my advisor Judith Blau for her academic advisement, moral encouragement and intellectual conversation throughout the course of this project. She has always been available and a tremendous help. She has become a good mentor and example for me. I thank her for all her help throughout my graduate education. I also would like to acknowledge members of my dissertation committee who found time to serve in my committee, read drafts and improved my work. I want to thank Kenneth Bollen for his advice and careful reading of my drafts. I am grateful to Julius Nyangoro for his continual support and encouragement in the course of my graduate studies. I thank Bereket Habte Selassie for his academic and moral help. I thank Charles Kurzman for serving in my committee and accommodating his schedule to fit my needs. I thank the Afrobarometer survey project for making these valuable cross-national surveys available for public use. I am also thankful to the State failure task force project for making their dataset publicly available. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………....x LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………………xii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 RURAL-URBAN DUALITY IN INSTITUTIONS OF RULE AND POLITICAL OPINION....................... 4 ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS ............................................................................................... 7 II. AFRICAN NATION-STATES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF POWER: THE LEGACY OF TERRITORIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SEGREGATION ON STATE FAILURE ............................................................................................................................. 10 CITIZENSHIP AND THE NATION-STATE ................................................................................. 11 STATE FAILURES.................................................................................................................. 14 TERRITORIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SEGREGATION: THE SPECIFICITY OF AFRICA ................. 18 CROSS-NATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN STATE FAILURE AND TERRITORIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SEGREGATION: HYPOTHESES ............................................................................................... 25 RESEARCH DESIGN: DATA, VARIABLES AND MODELS......................................................... 32 DATA:.................................................................................................................................. 32 DEPENDENT VARIABLE: STATE FAILURE ............................................................................. 33 INSTITUTIONAL AND TERRITORIAL VARIABLES: .................................................................. 34 CONTROL VARIABLES: ......................................................................................................... 36 ESTIMATING STATE FAILURE:.............................................................................................. 39 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION................................................................................................... 41 v EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL AND GEOGRAPHIC SEGREGATION ON STATE FAILURE............. 44 CONCLUSION: ...................................................................................................................... 57 III. CONSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY AMONG AFRICAN COUNTRIES: RURAL- URBAN, ETHNIC AND REGIONAL VARIATIONS. A MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS.. 60 INTRODUCTION: DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND SUSTAINABILITY...................................... 60 CONCEPTUALIZING LEGITIMACY ......................................................................................... 64 POWER, LEGITIMACY AND LIBERALISM ............................................................................... 65 ENTRY TO POLITICS, FORM OF RULE AND LEGITIMACY ....................................................... 70 CUSTOMARY POWER AND CONSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY IN POST COLONIAL AFRICA: ........ 74 MEASURES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY..................................................................... 79 DEPENDENT VARIABLES:............................................................................................. 81 Constitutional Legitimacy:.............................................................................................. 81 Rejection of Traditional Rule: ........................................................................................ 83 HYPOTHESES........................................................................................................................ 85 RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENCE IN CONSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY .......................................... 86 THE HIERARCHICAL NATURE OF LEGITIMACY: CONTEXTUAL HYPOTHESES ....................... 91 ETHNIC GROUP LEVEL HYPOTHESES ................................................................................... 93 REGION LEVEL HYPOTHESES ................................................................................................ 99 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................................ 102 Data and Independent Variables ................................................................................... 102 Individual Level Variables:........................................................................................... 103 vi Main Independent Variables:........................................................................................ 103 Demographic and Socioeconomic Status- .................................................................... 104 Institutional Factors of Political Exposure: .................................................................. 104 Ethnic Group Level Variables: ..................................................................................... 106 Region Level Variables: ............................................................................................... 106 METHOD OF ANALYSIS: MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS............................................................. 107 MODEL SPECIFICATIONS .................................................................................................... 109 Model 1: Random intercept or ANOVA model (for ethnic groups and regions) ......... 109 Model 2: Random intercept plus main independent variables:.................................... 110 Model 3: Random intercept plus main independent variables & country dummies:... 111 Model 4: Random intercept plus main independent and control variables:................. 112 Model 5: Random intercept plus individual and group level independent variables:.. 113 Cross-level Interaction Effects Models (Models 6, 7 and 8) ........................................ 113 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: ............................................................................................... 115 Descriptive Statistics..................................................................................................... 115 MULTILEVEL MODELS ......................................................................................................