We will henceforth be looking upon each district as the basic operational unit...each district team will become the major force and instrument for the design of rural development. This will create for the people and their chosen representative a whole new world of opportunity.-Daniel arap Moi, announcing the District Focus for Rural Development, 22 October 1982.
At a time when most African countries are characterised as ‘strong societies and weak states’, the tendency to afford the state ‘ontological primacy’ in explaining the nature of African political economy is being challenged. One manifestation of this has been a shift in scholarly attention to those intermediary and autonomous organisations which function and sometimes flourish in the space that exists between the state and the household – namely, the various groups which comprise ‘civil society’.
At a time when most African countries are characterised as ‘strong societies and weak states’,1 the tendency to afford the state ‘ontological primacy’ in explaining the nature of African political economy is being challenged. One manifestation of this has been a shift in scholarly attention to those intermediary and autonomous organisations which function and sometimes flourish in the space that exists between the state and the household – namely, the various groups which comprise ‘civil society’.2
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