Annual Review of Economics · 2026 · Soeren Henn、J. E. M. Robinson
中文摘要
我们概述了关于历史上非洲相对缺乏国家形成的各种解释。在此过程中，我们首次系统性地记录了非洲政治去中心化的程度，计算出在1880年大概存在45,000个独立的政治实体，且这些政治实体极少按族群界线组织。其中至多2%可被归类为国家。我们对这种极端的政治去中心化提出了一个新论点，假定非洲社会是被刻意组织起来以阻止集权出现的。在这方面他们取得了成功。我们指出了非洲社会的一些有助于其维持这一均衡的关键特征。我们还强调了经济组织是如何服从于这些政治目标的。
Abstract
We provide an overview of the explanations for the relative lack of state formation historically in Africa. In doing so, we systematically document for the first time the extent to which Africa was politically decentralized, calculating that in 1880 there were probably 45,000 independent polities that were rarely organized on ethnic lines. At most 2% of these could be classified as states. We advance a new argument for this extreme political decentralization positing that African societies were deliberately organized to prevent centralization from emerging. In this they were successful. We point out some key aspects of African societies that helped them to manage this equilibrium. We also emphasize how the organization of the economy was subservient to these political goals.