Douglas A. Yates – Författare

This is a history of the abuses suffered by Africa through colonial, imperial and capitalistic scrambles for oil that have plagued the continent for centuries. France, the US, Portugal, Spain and other western nations have continually plundered Africa’s resources, leading to political corruption and the annihilation of democracy that continues to this day.Extraordinary stories reach far into the depths of domination and control. Neo-colonialism in Gabon, Yankee Landlords of Cabinda and the World Bank in Chad are explored, as is the growth of kleptocracy, the rise of multinational corporations and the legacy of slavery. Concluding with evidence of how Africans have refused to remain passive in the face of such developments, forming movements to challenge this new attempt at domination, this book challenges our understanding of Africa, raising questions about the consequences of our reliance on foreign resources.

This book presents a comparative analysis of the world’s political dynasties classified by regime types (monarchic/republican, democratic/non-democratic). It provides a clear survey of dynastic rule, contemporary case studies, and explains why dynasties rise, survive, decline and fall.Representing the first attempt to topically catalogue theories of dynastic rule, the book brings together and coheres ideas hitherto spread across many disciplines: from history and biography, to anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, political science, international relations. It provides clear illumination of the dynamics of dynastic rule and how it functions, its rules and maxims, and makes predictions about its future. One quarter of all the states in the contemporary international system today have a family dynasty as head of state or government. Beneath these “national” leaders are other political families who run regional, provincial, and municipal governments, numbering in the tens of thousands. Dynasty is no archaism on the verge of extinction. Every regime type, every historical era, every geographical region breeds some kind of dynastic rule. Considering how common they are, a review of dynastic theories is long overdue.This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of political elites, comparative politics, constitutional law, diplomacy, political history, psychology, commonwealth studies, and biography.

This book presents a comparative analysis of the world’s political dynasties classified by regime types (monarchic/republican, democratic/non-democratic). It provides a clear survey of dynastic rule, contemporary case studies, and explains why dynasties rise, survive, decline and fall.Representing the first attempt to topically catalogue theories of dynastic rule, the book brings together and coheres ideas hitherto spread across many disciplines: from history and biography, to anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, political science, international relations. It provides clear illumination of the dynamics of dynastic rule and how it functions, its rules and maxims, and makes predictions about its future. One quarter of all the states in the contemporary international system today have a family dynasty as head of state or government. Beneath these “national” leaders are other political families who run regional, provincial, and municipal governments, numbering in the tens of thousands. Dynasty is no archaism on the verge of extinction. Every regime type, every historical era, every geographical region breeds some kind of dynastic rule. Considering how common they are, a review of dynastic theories is long overdue.This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of political elites, comparative politics, constitutional law, diplomacy, political history, psychology, commonwealth studies, and biography.