Minority rights constitute some of the most normatively and economically important human rights. Although the political science and legal literatures have proffered a number of constitutional and institutional design solutions to address the protection of minority rights, these solutions are characterized by a noticeable neglect of, and lack of sensitivity to, historical processes. This Article addresses that gap in the literature by developing a causal argument that explains diverging practices of minority rights protections as functions of colonial governments' variegated institutional practices with respect to particular ethnic groups. Specifically, this Article argues that in instances where colonial governments politicize and institutionalize ethnic hegemony in the pre-independence period, an institutional legacy is created that leads to lower levels of minority rights protections. Conversely, a uniform treatment and depoliticization of ethnicity prior to independence ultimately minimizes ethnic cleavages postindependence and consequently causes higher levels of minority rights protections. Through a highly structured comparative historical analysis of Botswana and Ghana, this Article builds on a new and exciting research agenda that focuses on the role of long-term historio-structural and institutional influences on human rights performance and makes important empirical contributions by eschewing traditional methodologies that focus on single case studies that are largely descriptive in their analyses. Ultimately, this Article highlights both the strength of a historical approach to understanding current variations in minority rights protections and the varied institutional responses within a specific colonial government.

In the midst of an energy crisis, sub-Saharan Africa is a global outlier with respect to power infrastructure and is literally without power. Nearly 600 million Africans-roughly two-thirds of the region-currently lack access to consistent, reliable, and affordable electricity, constituting a significant barrier to economic and social development, the deprivation of a number of socioeconomic rights, and a cause of environmental degradation. The Power Africa Initiative, announced in June 2013, seeks to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years through an innovative public-private partnership between United States governmental agencies, private sector energy and infrastructure firms, and six African governments. This paper fills a gap in both the legal and policy literatures by identifying the implementation challenges to Power Africa and the broader theoretical question of the institutional and regulatory obstacles to power sector reform and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on the political economy and international development literatures, this paper contends that low state capacity and the presence of urban bias in African states represent significant implementation challenges to Power Africa. Specifically, weak and incapacitated state apparatuses and a lack of state autonomy vis-à-vis urban elites have created centralized hybrid power markets and regulatory frameworks that are systematically biased against the extension of electricity into rural areas and have marginalized independent power producers (IPPs) and potential rural consumers. Ultimately, without additional institutional and regulatory reforms, the core goal of Power Africa-rural electrification-will be significantly limited by a lack of commercial sustainability for independent power projects and a lack of consumer affordability to access power.