ABSTRACT
In any society, security is inextricably linked to the coherency of domestic social relations. To the extent that the patterns of interaction among group interests are regular, the state's political capabilities will be enhanced and threats to the political order are likely to be momentary and contained within the system. In the some twenty or more years since independence, Africa has had broad experience with both coherent and incoherent domestic social relationships. Policy analysis, with its primary focus on choice, can effectively utilize the state as an important unit. Social relations are expressed in institutions that may in turn structure the nature of the interactional process. A comprehensive view of reality requires attention to the broader norms and values legitimizing the state as well as to the manner in which state agencies convert specific policy preferences into authoritative allocations of value.
