Domestic Governance, Regime Stability and African Civil Society

Abstract

As we have seen earlier, China’s re-entry into Africa was greeted with much scepticism. Perhaps nothing exercized critics more than the potential impacts of China on African governance systems. This concern is captured by Paul Collier’s warning about authoritarianism: ‘the Chinese are making it worse, for they are none too sensitive when it comes to matters of governance’ (Collier 2008: 86). In Chapter 5 we discussed the idea of ‘rogue aid’ and this chapter picks up on that not by looking at what critics think will happen to Africa’s governance, which was often about seeking to present western aid in the best possible light, but by analysing what actually happens. This chapter is also distinct from Chapter 8 where we look at international politics and multilateral governance, though clearly the idea of discrete ‘national’ and ‘international’ spheres of governance is artificial and we will be examining the interacting scales of governance.