Notes on the Contributors - Introduction; Z.Ergas - PART 1 THE THEORY - Reflections on State Centrism as Ideology in Africa; H.Glickman - Class, Political Domination and the African State; N.Kasfir - The Managerial State in Africa: A Conflict Coalition Perspective; O.Marenin - The State as Lame Leviathan: The Patrimonial Adminstrative State in Africa; T.Callaghy - Hegemony and State Softness in Africa: Some Variations in Elite Responses; D.Rothchild - The Dynamics of Factionalism in Contemporary Africa; R.Lemarchand - PART 2 THE PRACTICE - The Crisis of the Socialist State in Africa; M.Ottaway - The Military and the State in Africa: Problems of Political Transition; C.Welch - The Foreign Exchange Imperative, Policy Reform and the African State; C.Lancaster - The Politics of Agricultural Pricing in Sub-Saharan Africa; R.Bates - Basic Human Needs and the African State; R.Curry Jr - Directions for Further Research: Diarchy, Conditionality, Aid and Development in Africa - Index