Functional Efficiency and the Elements of the Political System: An Evaluation of Nigerian Political Structure and Restructuring Agenda

Samuel O Okafor

Abstract


Nigerian political system much as other nations across the globe has been set up on a particular structure, which covertly dictates the rules for the manipulations of powers and the access to available resources. The understanding of this structure has enabled some groups (especially the political elites and ethnic cum religious majorities) to chart their way out of group related challenges while the ignorance of the structure has made other groups (the electorates and minority groups) in the same system vulnerable to the inordinate ambitions of other groups. Hierarchies of governments in Nigeria such as federal, state and local governments reflect in their nature, opportunities and vulnerabilities for different categories of people of which if properly understood and utilised, will be more service oriented than theoretical assumption. This paper examines the ideal political structures of Nigerian political system, considering the roles of the elements in these structures, their pragmatic implications to the hope of the masses in Nigeria and the harmony of the Nigerian political system. This was carried out with the aid of structural functionalism and game theoretical models. Standing on the angle of utilitarian values of structures, the paper recommends the populists' approach to the Nigerian political structure by the common citizens for the reconciliation of the challenges of multi-ethnic cum religious interests and the crises of the political elites in Nigerian political system

Keywords


Nigeria, Restructuring, Games Theory, Structural functionalism, Populism, Political system

Full Text:

PDF

References


Achebe, C. (2000). Home and Exile. New York: Oxford University press.

Achebe, C. (1983). The trouble with Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers.

Aghalino, S.O. (2000). British colonial policies and the oil palm industry in the Niger delta region of Nigeria, 1900-1960. African Study Monographs, 21(1): 19-33.

Akkerman A., Mudde, C& Zaslove, A. (2014). How populist are the people? Measuring populist attitudes in voters. Comparative Political Studies,47, 1324–53.

Almond, G. A., and Powell, G. B., Jr (1966). Comparative politics: A developmental approach. Boston: Little, Brown.

Almond, G., and Coleman, J. S. (1960). The politics of the developing areas. Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press.

Arukwe, N.O. (2010). Since Equiano: History and challenges of African socio-political thought. Nsukka: University of Nigeria press.

Bertalanfy, L. von. (1956). General system theory. General Systems, (I), l-l0.

Blake, J. W. (1937). European beginnings in West Africa, 1454-1578. London: Longmans.

Bourdieu, P. and Loic, W. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cancian, F. M. (1968). Varieties of functional analysis. In D. L. Sills (ed.) International encyclopaedia of social sciences, Vol.5 (pp.29-4l). New York: MacMillan.

Canovan, M. (1999). Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy. Political Studies, 47, 2–16.

Deutsch, K. W, (1963). The nerves of government. New York: Free Press.

Dicicco-Bloom, B. and Gibson, D. R. (2010). More than a game: Sociological theory from the theories of games. Sociological Theory,28(3), 247-271.

Dunn, W. N. (1981). Public policy analysis: An introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Durkheim, E. (1950). The Rules of the Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.

Dyfan J. [The Inter-Parliamentary Union] (2012). Review of the Institutional Structures and Processes Related to the MDGs in the Parliament of Nigeria. Abuja: The Inter-Parliamentary Union

Easton, D. (1953). The political system: An inquiry into the state of political science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Easton, D. (1957). An approach to the analysis of political systems. World Politics, (9), 383-400.

Easton, D. (1965). A framework for political analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Ekundare R.D. (1973). An Economic History of Nigeria I860-1960. London: Methuen & Co Ltd.

Elchardus, M. and Spruyt, B. (2016). Populism, persistent republicanism and diclinism: An empirical analysis of populism as a thin ideology. Government & Opposition, (51), 111–33.

Fisher, J. R. (2010). System theory and structural functionalism. 21st Century Political Science:A Reference Hand book, Vol.1. ----incomplete referencing

Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Geertz, C. (1980). Blurred genres: The refiguration of social thought. American Scholar, (49), 165–79.

Harper, D. (2011).Structural-functionalism: Grand theory or methodology. Leicester: University of Leicester.

Hogg, M. (2000). Subjective uncertainty reduction through self-categorisation: A motivational theory of social identity processes. European Review of Social Psychology, 11, 223–55.

Jega A. M (2007) Democracy, good governance and development in Nigeria. Spectrum Books, Ibadan.

Jones, C. O. (1977). An introduction to the study of public policy (2nded.). Boston: Duxbury.

Kagel, R. (1997). Handbook of experimental economics, Princeton Univ. Press.

Kriesi, H. & Pappas, T. (Eds). (2015). European populism in the shadow of the great recession. Colchester: ECPR Studies.

Kriesi, H. (2014). The populist challenge. West European Politics,37, 361–78.

Laurijssen, I. & Spruyt, B. (2014). Not for people like us? A six-year panel study of the mutual relationship between feelings of relative deprivation and occupational status among young adults in Flanders. Social Indicators Research,124, 617–35.

Malinowski, B. (1922).Argonauts of the western pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagos of Melanesian new Guinea. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Mbaveren, D. G. (2013). Political violence and socioeconomic development in Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 4: 41-45.

Merton, R. K. (1968). Social theory and social structure. New York: Free Press.

Mitchell, W. C. (1962). The American polity: A social and cultural interpretation. New York: Free Press.

Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government & Opposition, 39, 541–63.

National Conference (2014). The final report of the national conference on Nigerian political structure since 1914. Abuja: Government press.

Nwanunobi, C. O. (2001). African Social Institutions. Nsukka: University of Nigeria press.

Okafor S O., Akwaji F. N. & Oga T. (2018).Media, Political Socialization and Participation: The Case of South-South/South-Eastern Nigeria. Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences JSS 4 (3), 331-343.

Okafor S. O. & Okafor J. C (2019). Government Policy Approach to Environmental Conflicts among the Niger Delta Communities: Implication to 2015 and Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of Social and Development Sciences 10, (2), 1-14

Okafor, S.O. and Okafor, J. C. (2018). Political violence and the prospect of democracy in Nigeria: A survey of the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. J Pol Sci Pub Aff 6, 338.

Okafor, S.O. (2019).The colonialists and indigenous exchange currency: Tracing the genesis of socioeconomic woes in postcolonial Nigeria. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Policy,8(1), 37-50.

Osborne, M. J. (2002). Nash equilibrium: Theory. London: Oxford University Press.

Parsons, T. (1951). The social system. New York: Free Press.

Potts, R., Vella, K., Allan, D. & Neil, S. (2014). Exploring the usefulness of structural functional approaches to analyse governance of planning systems. Planning Theory, 1 –28.

Radcliffe-Brown, A. (1935). On the concept of function in social science. American Anthropologist, 37(3), 394–402.

Rooduijn, M. (2014). The nucleus of populism: In search of the lowest common denominator. Government & Opposition,49, 573–99.

Saucer, B. (1992). Approaches to the study of politics. New York: Macmillan.

Slez, A.& John, L. M. (2007). Political action and party formation in the United States constitutional convention. American Sociological Review,72, 42–67.

Smith, M. G. (1966). A structural approach to comparative politics. In D. Easton (ed.)Varietiesof political theory(pp. I l3-128). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Stanley, B. (2008). The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies, (13),95110.

Susser, B. (1992). Approaches to the study of politics. New York: Macmillan.

Turocy, T.T. and von Stengel, B. (2001). Game theory: The draft of an introductory survey of game theory. Prepared for the Encyclopaedia of Information Systems. London: Academic Press.

Urry, J. (2000). Sociology beyond societies: Mobilities for the twenty-first century. London: Routledge.

Van Kessel, S. (2014). The populist cat-dog: Applying the concept of populism to contemporary European party systems. Journal of Political Ideologies,19, 99-110.

Wirt, F. M. and Mitchell, D. E. (1982). Social science and educational reform; The political uses of social research. Educational Administration Quarterly, 18(4), l-16.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/jsu.v15i1.21988

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 0 times
PDF - 0 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2021 Samuel O Okafor

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

INDEXED BY: 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

 

REDAKSI JURNAL SOSIOLOGI USK (MEDIA PEMIKIRAN & APLIKASI): Gedung Program Studi Sosiologi Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik,  Universitas Syiah Kuala, Jln. Tgk Tanoh Abee, Darussalam Banda Aceh, Aceh 23111.Telp. (0651)7555267. eMail: sosiologi.fisip@usk.ac.id

 

Lisensi Creative Commons
Ciptaan disebarluaskan di bawah Lisensi Creative Commons Atribusi 4.0 Internasional.