Rather than simply summarising the state of play in African countries and elsewhere, Freedom of Information and the Developing World identifies and makes explicit the assumptions about the citizen's relationship to the state that lie beneath Freedom of Information (FoI) discourse. The book goes on to test them against the reality of the pervasive politics of patronage that characterise much of African practice.

• Develops a discourse about the concept of FoI
• Discussion of the human rights claim appropriates the concepts of Hohfeldian analysis for more radical purposes in support of the idea that the state has a duty to implement FoI practices