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Traditional institutions in Africa: past and present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2023

Clara Neupert-Wentz Open the ORCID record for Clara Neupert-Wentz [Opens in a new window]  and
Carl Müller-Crepon Open the ORCID record for Carl Müller-Crepon [Opens in a new window]
Clara Neupert-Wentz*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Carl Müller-Crepon
Affiliation:
Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Clara Neupert-Wentz; Email: clara@ps.au.dk
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Abstract

To what degree and why are traditional institutions persistent? Following up the literature on the long-term effects of precolonial institutions in Africa, we investigate whether and where today's traditional institutions mirror their precolonial predecessors. We do so by linking data on contemporary traditional institutions of African ethnic groups with Murdock's historical Ethnographic Atlas. We find a robust association between past and present levels of institutional complexity, differentiating between institutions’ political centralization and functional differentiation. However, this persistence originates almost exclusively from former British colonies governed with more reliance on precolonial institutions than other colonies, in particular French ones. These findings contribute to research on the development and effects of traditional institutions, highlighting the need to account for varying persistence of traditional institutions.

Keywords

colonial legaciesEthnographic Atlasinstitutional developmentinstitutional persistencelong-term effectsprecolonial institutionstraditional institutions

Information

Type
Original Article
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 267 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of EPS Academic Ltd

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