Dictators and Democracy in African Development: The Political Economy of Good Governance in Nigeria

Drawing on a historical study of Nigeria since independence, Dr. Carl LeVan of American Univerity argues in his new book, Dictators and Democracy in African Development: the Political Economy of Good Governance in Nigeria, that the structure of the policy-making process explains variations in government performance better than other commonly cited factors, such as oil, colonialism, ethnic diversity, foreign debt, and dictatorships. He links the political structure of the policy process to patterns of government performance over half a century to show that the key factor is not simply the status of the regime as a dictatorship or a democracy, but rather the structure of the policy-making process by which different policy demands are included or excluded. Please join us for what will be a timely conversation with the author about the political process in Nigeria, just two months shy of its critical national elections set for early 2015.

>with

Carl LeVa
Assistant Professor, School of International Service
American University

An informal reception, from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., will precede the discussion.

Monday, December 15, 2014
5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Please RSVP to africa@csis.org