Unravelling personified development policies in East Africa: a theoretical and empirical study
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The record failure of development aid, massive corruption, escalating poverty rates, \nresource-related conflicts, systematic exclusion, and general disenfranchisement \nacross the East African Community (EAC) puzzle many development experts, as \nthey do concerned citizens. Instead of espousing inclusive citizen participation, cyclic \nrounds of national leaders have governed EAC countries using retrograde \nideologies, depictive of restrictive leadership interests. Underlying these interests is \nusually a deep-seated desire for self-entrenchment that crafty leaders impose on \nhapless masses. In the process, the leaders methodically personify state institutions \nand systems, rendering them acquiescent to their desires. Over time, destitute \ncitizens also submit to the status quo, yielding a cadre of “acquiesced citizens”. \nWith respect to the above, the three objectives of this study were to analyse how \npersonified leadership styles influence governance and development policies in East \nAfrica; to assess the degree of citizen involvement in public governance, and how \nthis influences development in East Africa; and to develop criteria for citizen-driven \ndevelopment policies that transcend personified governance in East Africa. \nThe findings of this thesis will enable citizens, academia, development practitioners \nand other stakeholders to unconditionally determine or guide national governance \nand development agenda. Most importantly, this study has unravelled a new \napproach for analysing national leadership, in a manner that can potentially enable a \ncountry to identify leaders who can champion effective principles of good \ngovernance and simultaneously achieve sustainable development.
Author: Oceng Apell
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2994230792