Arbitrary States is a compelling book. It draws on extensive and original field research. It is well-written and provides a new way of understanding the institutional contours of Museveni's long rule.
Rebecca Tapscott is an Ambizione Research Fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics' Centre on Africa. Her research focuses on authoritarianism, violence, and state formation in developing countries. She has over a decade of experience working on development and governance in sub-Saharan Africa. Her internationally-recognized research appears in numerous academic journals including Development and Change, African Affairs, and Disasters.