By attributing recent violent conflicts in Africa to decades of underdevelopment which can be traced back to the colonial times, there is scholarly consent among pan-African scholars that the present African state is a neo-colonial construct and must be democratically reconstituted. In response to the pan-African intellectual-political project, this paper will provide a comparative historical-structural analysis of the post-colonial state formation processes in D. R. Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There will be a discussion in the conclusion on the confrontation of the sub-Saharan African states with post-colonial governance imbroglio.The rulers and their associates [who] resemble a mafijia rather than a government if one thinks of the latter as necessarily serving some collective interest, however faint and by whatever means, to be distinguished from the mafijia. This absence of collective, versus private, interest is a major distinguishing feature of warlord politics. (Reno 1998: 3) Accordingly, warlord politics refers to a complex form of strongman-centered patron-client factionalist repertoire in post-colonial Africa. In exchange for international recognition, and foreign fijinancial and military aids in the pursuit of sovereignty, warlords grant concessions to foreign powers to tap into state African resources:Colonial rulers cut deals with local strongmen, tolerating their use of delegated state authority for private gain in return for their loyalty and help in reining in administrative regimes, not only for the revenues they generated but also for taking over local administrative tasks in return for privileged access to resources or markets. (Reno 1998: 21)
In recent years, transnational Chinese investors from the Greater China region have been seeking natural and mineral resources in foreign countries. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich region in the Philippines where China's resource-led diplomacy was first launched in 2007. Although foreign Chinese mining companies have made inroads into mineral-rich local communities, they have also encountered resistance from non-state actors, causing their operations to be disrupted and suspended. The authors argue that the local reception of China's resource-led diplomacy can be attributed to two factors. First, in light of the debate on 'China's globalization versus South East Asian state sovereignty', the growing strength of the Philippine state in resisting transnational mining endeavours hinges on the democratic space constituted by both state and non-state actors, resulting from political decentralization and active social activism. Second, it shows that the transnational Chinese actors have an insufficient knowledge base, in which they privilege a top-down state-centric approach that reinforces the patrimonial rule of the Philippine politicians. The authors conclude, first, that such patrimonial rule is largely made possible through the provincial governor as the key agent connecting the national state authority, local government units, mining operators/ investors and the affected villagers. Second, local resistance to resource-led patrimonial rule hinges on the formation of Philippine democratic space. This space remains transient and unpredictable in nature, and so cannot be assimilated into the patrimonial character of the Philippine state. Such democratic struggle is like wind, thunder and lightning -hard to chase, hard to catch.
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