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Title Regional devolution in the southern Sudan, 1972-1981
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/1842/7137
Date 1982
Author(s) Arou, Mom Kou Nhial
Abstract This is a study of Regional devolution granted to the Southern Provinces of the Sudan in 1972. It seeks to answer five basic questions: what was the basis of North-South conflict; why and in what way was it possible to resolve the conflict in 1972; what is the nature of the devolved system both in terms of the powers of Southern institutions and in terms of their actual roles in Southern and Sudanese politics; to what degree has devolution proved both successful in its objectives in resolving the North-South conflict and in providing efficient government for the South; and finally, is devolution to persist as a form of government in the Sudan. CHAPTER ONE briefly describes the geography, demography and colonial history of the Southern Sudan and shows that the South is fragmentary, culturally and physically, but also distinct from and largely isolated from the North. Those processes like education and economic devolopment, which might have brought about integration between the North and South, were impeded by the colonial policy of separate control of the two regions and the neglect of the development of the Southern economy, -which placed the southern elite in a weak position to defend regional interests as independence approached. CHAPTER TWO is concerned with the politics of the Civil War (1955-72), its background, evolution and the development of the devolutionary solution. It shows that the devolutionary solution was possible in 1972 because both the northern and southern leadership were now willing to compromise rather than to continue the war, which none of them felt it would win by force. CHAPTER THREE attempts to trace the precise steps leading to the devolutionary solution. It focuses its attention on the June 9th Declaration, southern responses and the role played by the mediators in reaching such solution as well as the nature of what was agreed upon. CHAPTER FOUR discusses the steps taken and trends set during the transition phase between the Addis Agreement and the establishment of the first PRA. It also analyses the first elections to the newly-created Regional Assembly and indicates that these brought into renewed prominence the factional and sectional politics which had characterised Southern politics since 1948. CHAPTER FIVE discusses the devolved powers to the Region as well as the working of the Regional Assembly and High Executive Council. It also examines the course of both internal Southern politics and of its relationship with Central Government and the Northern-dominated political system. CHAPTER SIX discusses the internal conflict which developed after the establishment of the institutions of Devolution, as a result of intra-elite struggle for power and control of the Regional Government. This growing pattern of factional competition coincided with growing Presidential intervention and contributed to undermining the integrity of Southern institutions and, thus, to growing civil discontent and disorder in the South, at the end of the first decade of devolution. CHAPTER SEVEN assesses the devolutionary solution against the underlying causes of North-South conflict and attempts to answer the question: In as the devolved system of Government worked in a backward country like the Sudan and will it continue in existence?
Subject(s) Political; science; Public; administration
Language eng
Publisher University of Edinburgh
Type of publication PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Format application/pdf
Identifier 331048
Repository Edinburgh - University of Edinburgh
Added to C-A: 2022-08-22;11:49:56