The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. ... This scenario would fall foul of many theories of the state, in which the absence of the coherent link between the population and the power structure of the state calls it into question. ... One example of ethnic cleavage which can be traced directly to colonial foundations is that of the African...

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• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate