Robert H. Bates

Robert H. Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University, will write a book on the politics and economics of development in Africa during the second half of the twentieth century. Bates will draw on research he has conducted in 26 African countries, and will anchor his findings in both political and economic theory. The book will center on the idea of development as structural change – the movement from an agrarian to industrial economy, as well as the shift from a society based on families and villages to one based upon towns and cities. Bates argues that the state plays a central role in this process.