How States Get Built - and Why Many in Sub-Saharan Africa Keep Breaking Down

When states break down and societies fall in anarchy, or see military coups, or endure civil wars: people suffer. But why does this happen? And why does the region of Sub-Saharan Africa seem to see more of this than most? Attributing this to individuals or single-factor explanations is an inadequate and weak explanation: attributing it to simple racism is an odious one. But then what's going on?We critically examine below the surface of society to analyse its structures, and how these affect the strength/stability of a state. We will also explore the root causes of state strength, and compare the geographic and socioeconomic European/Sub-Saharan African state forming experiences.This episode draws on various scholars, but the outstanding credit has to go to Jeffrey Herbst's groundbreaking study 'States and Power in Africa', which seeks to remedy the unfortunate situation of international relations/institutional economics studies being inefficiently focused on the specifically European experience of how states form and consolidate themselves. Enjoy!NB: This video was recorded about 9 months before uploading