AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede In his book, Political order and political decay, Francis Fukuyama notes that patrimonialism which ancient dictators used to run down countries has now evolved into what is called “neopatrimonialism” in which political leaders adopt the outward forms of modern states-with bureaucracies, legal systems,elections,and the like and yet in reality rule for private gain. What strikes me about Fukuyama’s assertion is that his observation is at play in most African countries where some leaders have managed to “transform” their countries by effecting artificial institutions that remain subservient to the appointing authority.Fukuyama’s describes this as political decay which makes reform prohibitively difficult. What is rather disheartening about this is that citizens within such countries have taken a back seat and left the ruling elites to run the show and craft repugnant pieces of legislation that will have a bearing on future generations. Recently, MDC-T