International records / OpenAlex research

Juridical Sovereignty Versus Substantive Autonomy: Rethinking African Statehood in Contemporary International Relations

This study examined the divergence between juridical sovereignty and substantive autonomy in contemporary African statehood. Although African states possessed durable legal recognition, territorial integrity, and formal equality within international society, their capacity for independent economic, strategic, and institutional agency remained uneven. Drawing on dependency theory, the study analyzed how structural incorporation into the global political economy conditioned the exercise of sovereignty beyond its juridical form. A qualitative comparative case study design was employed, focusing o…