African political princes rule through informal contracts with the elite

Evidence

Unlike the Tyrant and the Autocrat, the Prince rules through private agreement with elements of the elite. Political Princes have royalist characteristics akin to those of a traditional monarchy, where the ruler is the personification of the state and the custodian of its political values and practices. But the new African Prince is obliged to conduct the affairs of state without the supporting normative framework of a political tradition… . [T]he legitimacy of the modern African Prince depends upon his respect for the private understandings and agreements he has made with other members of the oligarchy over whom he presides and with whom he rules. It is not only their power he respects, but also his informal contracts with them. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 94

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Prince type within Jackson and Rosberg’s framework.
• XREF: connects to: African Princes ruled through private agreements with elite factions — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 94; Black parliamentarism operates like informal markets, explained through hegemony — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 952; Ethnic balancing under authoritarian rule built cooperative Zambian elites — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 88 (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: African Princes ruled through private agreements with elite factions — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 94; Black parliamentarism operates like informal markets, explained through hegemony — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 952; Ethnic balancing under authoritarian rule built cooperative Zambian elites — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 88 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• African Princes ruled through private agreements with elite factions #corroborates (1.00) — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 94