A very level headed short book on the nature of democracy in West Africa. Although it was written in 1965, the political lessons are relevant today not only in Africa but in other fledgling democracies, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Lewis (a Nobel Prize winning economist) wrote this book after his difficult experiences as an adviser in Ghana under Nkrumah following the country's independence. His main points are that West African countries are characterized by geographically and ethnically distinct tribes, which requires a federal system and proportional representation to avoid political breakdown. In contrast, unitary state systems and first-past-the-post elections are more suitable to societies that are divided by economic class, rather than by tribe. He traces many of Africa's political problems to a failure by France and Britain to take these characteristics into account at the time of independence of their colonies. Lewis argues that fledgling democracies will only succeed, and avoid excessive patronage and political dysfunction, if the particular institutional structure of democracies are appropriately chosen for the given countries. ( )