Understanding hybridity governance in Africa: A theoretical framework for hybrid structures, policies, and practices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36096/ijbes.v6i4.655Keywords:
Hybridity Governance, African Public Administration, Socio-Cultural Theories, Governance Evolution, Organizational Structures.Abstract
The amalgamation of traditional and modern governance systems represents a transformative advancement in contemporary African government. This study examines the concept of "hybridity governance" within the African context, providing a comprehensive theoretical framework that integrates modern institutional procedures with traditional governance systems. The paper examines the evolution of African governance from pre-colonial to post-colonial eras, illustrating the emergence of hybrid governance as a response to internal dynamics and external influences. It accomplishes this by utilising historical studies. The philosophical underpinnings are investigated, highlighting organisational and social concepts that elucidate the acceptance of hybrid models. The paper elucidates the applications, accomplishments, and challenges of hybrid government in several African nations through various empirical case studies. A critical examination examines the consequences of these governance paradigms for public administration in Africa. It underscores opportunities for innovation and enhanced flexibility, while also emphasising intrinsic challenges such as job ambiguity and conflict. The report concludes with forecasts regarding the future trajectory of hybrid governance in Africa, considering the interplay of local socio-political dynamics, global interconnectedness, and technological advancements. This article serves as a vital resource for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders interested in the evolving governance paradigm in Africa, providing valuable applications and recommendations.
Downloads
References
Aguilera, R. V., & Cuervo-Cazurra, A. (2004). Codes of good governance worldwide: What is the trigger? Organization Studies, 25(3), 415-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840604042134 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840604040669
Aldrich, H., & Herker, D. (1977). Boundary spanning roles and organization structure. Academy of Management Review, 2(2), 217-230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1977.4409044
Ansell, C., & Gash, A. (2008). Collaborative governance in theory and practice. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), 543-571. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum032
Ayittey, G. B. N. (2006). Indigenous African institutions. Transnational Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9781571053374.i-586
Barkan, J. D. (2011). Kenya after Moi. Foreign Affairs, 82(1), 87-98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/20033831
Bartley, T. (2007). Institutional emergence in an era of globalization: The rise of transnational private regulation of labor and environmental conditions. American Journal of Sociology, 113(2), 297-351. https://doi.org/10.1086/521869 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/518871
Battilana, J., & Lee, M. (2014). Advancing research on hybrid organizing. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 397-441. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2014.916999 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520.2014.893615
Bayart, J. F. (1993). The state in Africa: The politics of the belly. Longman.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Penguin UK.
Berman, B. J. (1998). Ethnicity, patronage and the African state: The politics of uncivil nationalism. African Affairs, 97(388), 305-341. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/97.388.305 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007947
Berry, S. (1993). No condition is permanent: The social dynamics of agrarian change in Sub-Saharan Africa. University of Wisconsin Press.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.
Bierschenk, T., & de Sardan, J. P. O. (2014). States at work: Dynamics of African bureaucracies. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004264960
Boahen, A. A. (1987). African perspectives on colonialism. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Boege, V., Brown, A., & Clements, K. (2009). Hybrid political orders, not fragile or failed states. Peace Review, 21(1), 13-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402650903500721 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10402650802689997
Boege, V., Brown, A., Clements, K., & Nolan, A. (2008). On hybrid political orders and emerging states: State formation in the context of ‘fragility’. Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series, 8, 1-30. Retrieved from http://www.berghof-foundation.org/fileadmin/redaktion/Publications/Papers/Dialogue_Papers/berghof_handbook_8.pdf
Boone, C. (2003). Political topographies of the African state: Territorial authority and institutional choice. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615597
Bratton, M. (1989). Beyond the state: Civil society and associational life in Africa. World Politics, 41(3), 407-430. https://doi.org/10.2307/2010409 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2010506
Brinkerhoff, D. W., & Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2011). Public–private partnerships: Perspectives on purposes, publicness, and good governance. Public Administration and Development, 31(1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.591 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.584
Chabal, P., & Daloz, J. P. (1999). Africa works: Disorder as political instrument. James Currey Publishers.
Cheeseman, N., Lynch, G., & Willis, J. (2016). Decentralisation in Kenya: The governance of governors. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 54(1), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X15000728 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X1500097X
Chinn, M. D., & Fairlie, R. W. (2010). ICT use in the developing world: An analysis of differences in computer and internet penetration. Review of International Economics, 18(1), 153-167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2009.00869.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2009.00861.x
Clapham, C. (1985). Third world politics: An introduction. University of Wisconsin Press.
Clark, P. (2010). The Gacaca courts, post-genocide justice and reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without lawyers. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761584
Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. L. (1993). Modernity and its malcontents: Ritual and power in postcolonial Africa. University of Chicago Press.
Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. L. (2009). Ethnicity, Inc. University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226114736.001.0001
Corey, A., & Joireman, S. (2004). Retributive justice: The Gacaca courts in Rwanda. African Affairs, 103(410), 73-89. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adh053 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adh007
Crook, R. C. (2005). The role of traditional institutions in political change and development. CDD-Ghana Policy Brief, 4(4), 1-4.
Crook, R. C., & Manor, J. (1998). Democracy and decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa: Participation, accountability and performance. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511607899
Crowder, M. (1964). West Africa under colonial rule. Hutchinson.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101
Diouf, M. (2003). Engaging postcolonial cultures: African youth and public space. African Studies Review, 46(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.2307/1512842 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1514823
Donner, J., & Tellez, C. A. (2008). Mobile banking and economic development: Linking adoption, impact, and use. Asian Journal of Communication, 18(4), 318-332. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292980802333050 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01292980802344190
Ekeh, P. P. (1975). Colonialism and the two publics in Africa: A theoretical statement. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17(1), 91-112. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500005879 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500007659
Englebert, P. (2002). Born-again Buganda or the limits of traditional resurgence in Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 40(3), 345-368. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X02003936 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X02003956
Falola, T., & Heaton, M. M. (2008). A history of Africa. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819711
Ferguson, J. (2006). Global shadows: Africa in the neoliberal world order. Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822387640
Gibson, J. L. (2004). Overcoming apartheid: Can truth reconcile a divided nation? Russell Sage Foundation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0258934042000280698
Harrison, G. (2004). The World Bank and Africa: The construction of governance states. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203500644
Haverkort, B., van’t Hooft, K., & Hiemstra, W. (2002). Ancient roots, new shoots: Endogenous development in practice. Zed Books.
Hillman, A. J., Withers, M. C., & Collins, B. J. (2009). Resource dependence theory: A review. Journal of Management, 35(6), 1404-1427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309343469 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309343469
Howard, P. N., & Hussain, M. M. (2013). Democracy's fourth wave?: Digital media and the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199936953.001.0001
Huntington, S. P. (1968). Political order in changing societies. Yale University Press.
Hyden, G. (2006). African politics in comparative perspective. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791079
Iliffe, J. (2005). Africans: The history of a continent. Cambridge University Press.
Ingelaere, B. (2008). The Gacaca courts in Rwanda. In Traditional justice and reconciliation after violent conflict: Learning from African experiences (pp. 25-59). International IDEA.
Isichei, E. (1976). A history of the Igbo people. Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15621-4
Jack, W., & Suri, T. (2011). Mobile money: The economics of M-PESA. NBER Working Paper No. 16721. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w16721 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w16721
Justin, P. H., & Verkoren, W. (2022). Hybrid governance in South Sudan: The negotiated state in practice. Peacebuilding, 10(1), 17-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2022.2097454 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2021.1917186
Kebede, G. (2023). Post-conflict state building: Governance without government, written by Chandler, D. The Strength of Weak States? Non-State Security Forces and Hybrid Governance in Africa, written by Meagher, K. The African Review, 1(aop), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1163/23035503-001a0002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1821889x-bja10079
Kelsall, T. (2018). Business, politics, and the state in Africa: Challenging the orthodoxies on growth and transformation. Zed Books Ltd.
Kindersley, N. (2019). Rule of whose law? The geography of authority in Juba, South Sudan. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 57(1), 61-83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X18000466 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X18000629
Kjaer, A. M. (2004). Governance. Polity.
Leftwich, A. (1993). Governance, democracy and development in the Third World. Third World Quarterly, 14(3), 605-624. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599308420391 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599308420345
Logan, C. (2009). Selected chiefs, elected councillors and hybrid democrats: Popular perspectives on the coexistence of democracy and traditional authority. Journal of Modern African Studies, 47(1), 101-128. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X08003582 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X08003674
Lowndes, V., & Skelcher, C. (1998). The dynamics of multi-organizational partnerships: An analysis of changing modes of governance. Public Administration, 76(2), 313-333. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00103
Lugard, F. (1922). The dual mandate in British tropical Africa. Blackwood.
Maathai, W. (2009). The challenge for Africa. Pantheon Books.
Mamdani, M. (1996). Citizen and subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. Princeton University Press.
Mamdani, M. (2000). When victims become killers: Colonialism, nativism, and the genocide in Rwanda. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691193830
Mbembe, A. (2001). On the postcolony. University of California Press.
Mbiti, J. S. (1990). African religions and philosophy. Heinemann.
Meredith, M. (2005). The fate of Africa: From the hopes of freedom to the heart of despair. Public Affairs.
Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363. https://doi.org/10.1086/226550 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/226550
Mkandawire, T. (2001). Thinking about developmental states in Africa. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 25(3), 289-313. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/25.3.289 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/25.3.289
Mosley, P., Harrigan, J., & Toye, J. (1995). Aid and power: The World Bank and policy-based lending. Routledge.
Murithi, T. (2006). African approaches to building peace and social solidarity. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 6(2), 9-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/ajcr.v6i2.39402
Nkrumah, K. (1964). Consciencism: Philosophy and ideology for de-colonization. Panaf Books.
Ntsebeza, L. (2005). Democracy compromised: Chiefs and the politics of the land in South Africa. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047407904
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2002). Blinded by sight: Divining the future of anthropology in Africa. Africa Spectrum, 37(2), 299-325. https://doi.org/10.1177/000203970203700205
Nyerere, J. (1968). Ujamaa: Essays on socialism. Oxford University Press.
Olowu, D., & Wunsch, J. S. (2004). Local governance in Africa: The challenges of democratic decentralization. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Osborne, S. P. (Ed.). (2010). The new public governance?: Emerging perspectives on the theory and practice of public governance. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203861684
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1978). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. Harper & Row.
Pitcher, A., Moran, M. H., & Johnston, M. (2009). Rethinking patrimonialism and neopatrimonialism in Africa. African Studies Review, 52(1), 125-156. https://doi.org/10.1353/arw.0.0137 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/arw.0.0163
Provan, K. G., Fish, A., & Sydow, J. (2007). Interorganizational networks at the network level: A review of the empirical literature on whole networks. Journal of Management, 33(3), 479-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307302553 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307302554
Ranger, T. (1983). The invention of tradition in colonial Africa. In E. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger (Eds.), The invention of tradition (pp. 211-262). Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107295636.006
Ribot, J. C. (2003). Democratic decentralisation of natural resources: Institutional choice and discretionary power transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Public Administration and Development, 23(1), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.269 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.259
Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications.
Rolandsen, Ø. H. (2019). Trade, peace-building and hybrid governance in the Sudan-South Sudan borderlands. Conflict, Security & Development, 19(1), 79-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2019.1589651 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2019.1561628
Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Durand-Delacre, D., & Teksoz, K. (2019). The Sustainable Development Goals and Covid-19: Opportunities and risks. United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Sadiqi, F. (2008). Women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress amid resistance. Freedom House, 16, 5-31.
Santos, N. M., Laczniak, G. R., & Facca-Miess, T. M. (2015). The “Integrative Justice Model” as transformative justice for base-of-the-pyramid marketing. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(3), 563-576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2212-4
Southall, R. (2006). South Africa's role in promoting governance in Africa. International Affairs, 82(2), 269-290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2006.00510.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2006.00510.x
Thompson, L. (2002). A history of South Africa. Yale University Press.
Turner, T. (2013). Governance innovations in the Sierra Leone police. Commonwealth Secretariat.
Tutu, D. (1999). No future without forgiveness. Random House. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.1999.tb00012.x
Ubink, J. M., & Quan, J. F. (2008). How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating customary land management in Ghana. Law & Policy, 30(1), 141-167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9930.2007.00237.x
Unsworth, S. (2008). Is political analysis changing donor behaviour? Development Policy Review, 26(6), 729-749. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7679.2008.00434.x
Unsworth, S. (2009). What’s politics got to do with it?: Why donors find it so hard to come to terms with politics, and why this matters. Journal of International Development, 21(6), 883-894. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1649 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1625
Vakkuri, J., & Johanson, J. E. (2018). Debate: Taming the monster—understanding hybrid organizations and governance. Public Money & Management, 38(3), 162-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2018.1442969 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2018.1434306
Vakkuri, J., & Johanson, J. E. (2020). Hybrid governance, organizations and society: Perspectives on value creation. Public Management Review, 22(5), 755-775. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1762681 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429286247
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. University of California Press.
Young, C. (1994). The African colonial state in comparative perspective. Yale University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Masa Sylvester Motadi, Tshedza Sikhwari
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© 2025 retained by the authors. Licensee BSC International Academy, Istanbul, Turkey. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).