Staging Politics
Subtitle: Power and Performance in Asia and Africa (International Library of Political Studies)
Contributors: Julia C. Strauss (Editor); Donal Cruise O'Brien (Editor)
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Published: June 12, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781845113674
Subjects: POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Politics/International Relations; ASIA; Africa; Government - Comparative; Political Science / Foreign Legal Systems; International Relations - General
Description: "This fresh and original study analyses how power presents itself in dramatic performance in these two increasingly economically and politically important continents. Emotion and politics play a hugely important role in the politics of Asia and Africa but, as this book sets out, too much of western political research into the subject concentrates on apparent deficiencies - on the weakness of institutions, defects in the bureaucracy or markets, poor management of elections, absent judicial autonomy. Viewing political performance through Western eyes in this way - where politics is primarily about the naked pursuit of power and interests - can lead to a misunderstanding of how politics actually works in Africa and Asia, where process plays a far more important role. Thus performance, drama and emotion are far more integral to political outcome there than in the West. By concentrating on this new perspective the authors, each a recognised specialist in one or more states in Asia and Africa, avoid this trap and offer a coherent picture of the impact political performance has on the culture and politics of these societies and how they function."--Bloomsbury Publishing.