This volume explores important dimensions of state formation and erosion, social conflict and the gains and setbacks in democratization in contemporary Africa. The results of nearly a decade of research, reflection and collegial interaction, the collection delineates the dominant patterns of political restructuring since the upheavals of the early 1990s.

State, conflict, and democracy in Africa /Richard Joseph -- Third wave of democratization in Africa: ambiguities and contradictions / Crawford Young -- Rethinking democratic transitions: lessons from Eastern and Southern Africa / John W. Harbeson -- Reconfiguration of power in late twentieth-century Africa / Richard Joseph -- Economic bases of democratization / Robert H. Bates -- Globalization and African democracy / Nicolas van de Walle -- Crisis management and the making of "choiceless democracies" / Thandika Mkandawire -- "Mauritius miracle": democracy, institutions and economic policy / Deborah Brautigam -- African politics: the next generation / Richard L. Sklar -- Governance and the reconstitution of political order / Goran Hyden -- Senegal's enlarged presidential majority: deepening democracy or detour? / Linda J. Beck -- Testing democracy in Benin: experiments in institutional reform / Bruce A. Magnusson -- Race, class, and neopatrimonialism in Zimbabwe / Scott D. Taylor -- Role of citizenship laws in multiethnic societies: evidence from Africa / Jeffrey Herbst -- Local governance, democracy and development / Dele Olowu -- Ethnic politics in Africa: change and continuity / Marina Ottaway -- Ethnic insecurity, peace agreements, and state building / Donald Rothchild --State, civil society, and genocide in Rwanda / Timothy Longman -- Autocracy, violence, and ethnomilitary rule in Nigeria / Richard Joseph -- First look at second elections in Africa, with illustrations from Zambia / Michael Bratton and Daniel N. Posner -- Ghana: the challenges of consolidating democracy / E. Gyimah-Boadi -- Challenges to democratic consolidation in Namibia / Gretchen Bauer -- State, conflict, and democracy in Africa: the complex process of renewal / Adebayo Olukoshi.