Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Making African Civil Society Work: Assessing Conditions For Democratic State-Society Relations In Rwanda, Fiacre Bienvenu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a single case in-depth analysis of factors precluding civil society from democratizing African polities. Synthesizing existing literature on Rwanda, I first undertake an historical search to trace the origins and qualities of civil society in the colonial era. This effort shows, however, that the central authority—commencing before the inception of the Republic in 1962—consistently organized civil society to buttress its activities, not to challenge them. Next, using ethnographic research, I challenge conventional economic and institutional accounts of civil society’s role in democratization. I show that institutional change and the economic clout of organized groups are marginal and …

China's Interest In Africa: Conflict Or Stability?, Tristan X. Di Montenegro

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China’s increase in economic and military force projection capability has grown substantially since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This rapid evolution, has in turn, triggered a rush for resources in Least Developed Countries, opened up new markets for Chinese-manufactured products, and has frequently been accompanied by an increased Chinese military presence in those nations in which it maintains an economic or industrial presence.

The PRC’s activities in Least Developed Countries, such as those in Africa, have had a direct impact on cultures, regional politics, economies, infrastructure creation, and the environment, yet the complexity of these dynamics has to date …

Status Competition Between The U.S. And China On The Stage Of Africa, Vanessa C. Leon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study traced the American reaction to Chinese activities in Africa from the year 2000 to the present. Two keys to understanding how this reaction might unfold were power-transition theory, which predicts that rising states will challenge the hegemon in an international system in order to revise the rules, and status-based competition theories.

The U.S. appeared delayed in reacting to competition in Africa from its rising challenger there, China, until it understood that competition to be status-based. A clear, progressive reaction on the part of American leaders was traced. First, there was a split between the reactions of members …

Escaping The Resource Curse: The Sources Of Institutional Quality In Botswana, Angela Gapa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Botswana has recently garnered analytic attention as an anomaly of the “resource curse” phenomenon. Worldwide, countries whose economies are highly skewed towards a dependence on the export of non-renewable natural resources such as oil, diamonds and uranium, have been among the most troubled, authoritarian, poverty-stricken and conflict-prone; a phenomenon widely regarded as the “resource curse". The resource curse explains the varying fortunes of countries based on their resource wealth, with resource-rich countries faring much worse than their resource-poor counterparts. However, Botswana, with diamond exports accounting for 50percent of government revenues and 80percent of total exports, has achieved one of the …