Pierre Englebert is an American political scientist who specializes in the politics of

Francophone Africa African French (french: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 141 million people in Africa in 2018, spread across 34 countries and territories.29 full members of the Organisa ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

. He is the H. Russell Smith Professor of International Relations and Professor of Politics at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

. He previously worked at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

in West Africa. Underlining much of Englebert's work are his arguments on how externally granted (de jury)

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

is used as a resource by African elites, who then redistribute state positions through patron-client relationships. This is an extension of the existing "

neopatrimonialism Neopatrimonialism is a system of social hierarchy where patrons use state resources to secure the loyalty of clients in the general population. It is an informal patron–client relationship that can reach from very high up in state structures do ...

" theory of African politics.

References

External links

Faculty page
at Pomona College Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pomona College faculty American Africanists American political scientists International relations scholars {{Africanist-stub