In this well-informed, theoretically and methodologically sophisticated, and highly innovative book, and in related articles that appeared recently in Political Research Quarterly (53 [March 2000]: 7-36) and World Development (28 [Octo- ber 2000]: 1821-35), Pierre Englebert proposes and tests the hypothesis that variations in vertical and horizontal state legitimacy account for variations in the developmental capac- ity and economic growth of African states and of Africa in comparison to other world regions. Developmental capacity, which combines an index of specific economic policies (em- phasizing a free market and human capital) and an index of good governance, is the crucial intervening variable between state legitimacy and growth.