Wasta! The long-term implications of education expansion and economic liberalisation on Politics in Sudan.

Mann, Laura (2014) Wasta! The long-term implications of education expansion and economic liberalisation on Politics in Sudan. Review of African Political Economy, 41 (142). pp. 561-578. ISSN 0305-6244

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Abstract

While there has been much discussion of political violence in Sudan’s peripheries, less attention has been paid to Khartoum, the country’s capital and its historic locus of civic mobilisation. Student protests, union strikes, controversies within the National Congress Party, and an alliance between oppositional parties and rebel groups all signal mounting instability. This paper argues that a more grounded sociological perspective is needed to understand this instability. The Islamists did not merely use military power to seize control, but long-term economic and ideological power to upset sectarian control over politics and reconfigure state-society relations. Specifically, they pursued financial Islamisation, higher education expansion and liberalisation. In the process, they destroyed any semblance of a public, institutionalised system of governance, creating a more private, decentralised and transnational one. The Islamists have thus far demonstrated considerable talents in retaining control over this system, but it will become more difficult as oil revenue dwindles.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/crea20/current
Additional Information:	© 2014 ROAPE Publications Ltd
Divisions:	International Development
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	06 Nov 2017 09:49
Last Modified:	05 Apr 2024 03:48
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/85061

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