“Politics, Markets, and Governance in Africa: A conference in honor of Nicolas van de Walle,” set for May 8-9 in Warren Hall B75, is dedicated to the late Nicolas van de Walle (1957-2024), the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), a leading African politics scholar. Conference presentations will focus on the core themes of African political economy, regimes, and modes of electoral and social participation and contestation.
The conference is hosted by Cornell’s Institute for African Development, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies; the Department of Government (A&S); and the Center on Global Democracy in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy.
“Our cherished friend and colleague Nic van de Walle has shaped the field of political science, and African politics in particular, in substantial and important ways,” conference organizers said on the event website. “His insights into the politics of economic policy making and ‘permanent crisis,’ the driving forces of regime dynamics, electoral politics, and democratic transitions continue to underpin the foundations of comparative politics.”
The opening session, “Remembering Nicolas van de Walle: Research and Reflections” on May 8 from 3-5 p.m., will feature reflections on van de Walle’s legacy, his contributions to intellectual currents and his contributions to the next generation of research questions. Muna Ndulo, the Willian Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law, Cornell Law School, will moderate.
“The intellectual breadth and depth of Nic’s scholarship has been foundational in inspiring scholars throughout the world in their research on Africa’s political economy, and governance,” Ndulo said. “He was quite literally one of the most impactful scholars on the study of Africa.”
Speakers for this session include: Siba Grovoqui, professor of Africana studies (A&S); Ron Herring, professor of government (A&S); Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies (A&S); Thomas Pepinsky, the Walter F. LaFeber Professor of Government and Public Policy (A&S and Brooks School); and Rachel Beatty Riedl, the Peggy J. Koenig ’78 Director of the Center on Global Democracy, (Brooks School), and professor of government (A&S).
The program for May 9 features presentations by speakers from several institutions on autocracy, democracy, partisanship and other topics, all centered on Africa.
“Notably, the conference includes many of van de Walle’s former doctoral students, who continue to make contributions to the field of African politics and are a significant part of his legacy,” said Riedl. “Participants also include former co-authors from around the world, who demonstrate the reach of van de Walle’s global influence in his scholarship and mentorship.”
Van de Walle is known for his foundational books in two major subfields of the discipline: regime politics and political economy. “Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective,” co-authored with Michael Bratton and published in 1997, produced a roadmap for understanding electoral politics in Africa – a field that has expanded dramatically in the ensuing 20 years. And in 2001, van de Walle published “African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999,” a book that went on to heavily influence the subfield of political economy in its analysis of the strengths as well as limitations of neo-patrimonial rule in Africa.
Additionally, his 2014 co-edited volume with Ndulo, “Problems, Promises, and Paradoxes of Aid,” expounds on the paradoxes of economic aid and examines the evolving and varied approaches by presenting a comprehensive assessment on its impact on development on the African continent.
