Dynamic Patronage Coalitions

A State-Society Framework for Interpreting African Politics

Abstract

This study suggests that the framework of dynamic patronage coalitions, based on Roker's coalition theory and the workings of patron-client networks, ran fruitfully be utilized in analyzing African politics, particularly in light of the increasing prevalence of state-society approaches and the need for a comparative referent. The dynamic of coalition narrowing helps explain the frequency of coups, secession attempts, and exile invasions in the first decade or so after 1960, while coalition retraction accounts for the disengagement of portions of the citizenry from the channels of state in more recent years. The current sociopolitical turmoil affecting many African states indicates that coalitions stemming from an anti-incumbent class identity may successfully challenge stagnating coalitions of long-entrenched patrons.