Paper short abstract:

Creative implementation and adoption processes are assumed to reshape the model of the state in the respective cultural context.This research project attempts to examine the images and the perception of the state in its various manifestations on the basis of a case study in Cameroon.

Paper long abstract:

For the description of the African state, the academic discussions offer a multifarious repertoire of metaphors and terms such as ´peripheral state`, ´quasi state` or ´fictive state`. These considerations rule out the possibility of implementation processes of the imported state model and the formation of a specific cultural model. These categories are confronted with occasional recent considerations which question critically the adequacy of these terms and refer to an independent inherent development of African states in general. The approach of imagination in the construction of the state emphasizes the varieties of the state which cannot be described with the prevailing terminology. Within the reception of these elements, creative implementation and adoption processes are assumed to reshape the model of the state in the respective cultural context. Following this approach, the research project attempts to examine the images and the perception of the state in its various manifestations on the basis of a case study in Cameroon. In order to examine what is constructed about which image of the state in public speeches, the focus of the study will be the speech about the state given by actors in the public space of Cameroon (intellectuals and political class).