Federalism and Decentralization

This chapter explores Africa&s;s chequered experiences with federalism. It discusses the federal idea and the principles and properties that have made it paradoxically both appealing and unviable in the African context. The chapter draws together the main implications of author&s;s argument: that the limited success of federal structures thus far is unlikely to dampen their allure in the future. It highlights the formally decentralized polities including Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where decentralization was preceded by failed attempts to experiment with federation or quasi-federation. Unlike Nigeria and Ethiopia, post-apartheid South Africa does not explicitly define itself as a federation. To reiterate, some of the more ambitious experiments in political decentralization in Africa since the 1990s have taken place in countries with a previous, often contentious, history of experimentation with federation. Decentralization has aided post-conflict reconstruction in Uganda, restrained political authoritarianism in Mozambique, and spurred governance reform in Kenya, among other countries.