Revolutionising local politics? radical experiments in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda in the 1980s

Abstract

the 1980s were among the most dramatic, particularly in rural areas: Burkina Faso under Thomas Sankara (1983-1987), Ghana in the early years of the Jerry Rawlings presidency (1981-1992), and Uganda under Yoweri Museveni (1985-present). Despite surface similarities, especially in the establishment of local 'people's defense councils' or 'resistance councils', the three experiments had quite different outcomes, as a function both of antecedent conditions in state-society relations and of regimes' choices. A structured comparative-historical argument highlights differing state strategies vis-agrave-vis important social forces, especially traditional chiefs. Regimes' choices between confrontation, coexistence, and the construction of new relations with social forces resulted in different degrees of local political change. The 'revolutionary' local experiments provide insight into a general theory of African politics, in which states' transformational powers in rural areas remain...