Juridical Sovereignty Versus Substantive Autonomy: Rethinking African Statehood in Contemporary International Relations

Abstract

This study examined the divergence between juridical sovereignty and substantive autonomy in contemporary African statehood. Although African states possessed durable legal recognition, territorial integrity, and formal equality within international society, their capacity for independent economic, strategic, and institutional agency remained uneven. Drawing on dependency theory, the study analyzed how structural incorporation into the global political economy conditioned the exercise of sovereignty beyond its juridical form. A qualitative comparative case study design was employed, focusing on Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia. Data were drawn from scholarly literature, policy documents, and institutional reports and were analyzed through a structured thematic framework centered on economic structure, institutional capacity, security dynamics, and sovereign identity. The findings revealed that juridical sovereignty across the cases remained stable and internationally protected, yet substantive autonomy was mediated by commodity dependence, fiscal vulnerability, security interdependence, and internal identity fragmentation. Economic structures limited policy flexibility, security partnerships reflected relational rather than absolute autonomy, and fragmented domestic cohesion weakened institutional consolidation. While states engaged in strategic diplomatic repositioning and regional initiatives to expand bargaining space, these efforts operated within enduring structural constraints. The study concluded that African sovereignty functioned as a layered construct rather than a binary condition. Legal recognition persisted, but material autonomy required alignment across economic resilience, institutional strength, and cohesive sovereign identity. By refining dependency theory to incorporate security and digital interdependence, the study contributed to international relations scholarship through a multidimensional reconceptualization of sovereignty within global hierarchies.