The danger of powerful presidencies atop weak African states
Flags of African countries at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. African presidencies fail less from poor leadership than from powerful offices resting on weak state institutions.
Recently, I read Why Presidents Fail by Elaine C. Kamarck. It is a study of American presidencies, but it unsettled me for a different reason. If even the most institutionalised presidency in the world struggles under structural constraint, what explains the recurrent disappointments of African presidencies, which rest on far more limited administrative depth?
The book clarified something often blurred in our debates. Presidents rarely fail because they lack vision or intelligence. They falter because they misread the political system they inherit. They overestimate what the office can command and underestimate the machinery required to execute.
