African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999

by Nicolas Van de Walle

Overview

This 2001 book explains why African countries have remained mired in a disastrous economic crisis since the late 1970s. It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments which do not really believe that reform will be effective, which often oppose reforms because they would undercut the patronage and rent-seeking practices which undergird political authority, and which lack the administrative and technical capacity to implement much reform. Over time, state decay has increased.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107385641
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/24/2001
Series:	Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Approaches to Africa's permanent crisis; 2. Patterns in economic reform implementation, 1979–99; 3. Decision making in post-colonial Africa; 4. Understanding state responses to the crisis; 5. The crisis and foreign aid; 6. Democratization and the prospects for change; 7. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"This landmark work presents a searching and persuasive political explanation of Africa's failure to achieve development despite two decades of externally imposed economic reform. . . . A major contribution to our understanding of Africa's political economy." Foreign Affairs

"This landmark work presents a searching and persuasive political explanation of Africa's failure to achieve development despite two decades of externally imposed economic reform. . . . A major contribution to our understanding of Africa's political economy." Foreign Affairs

"Nicolas Van De Walle's [book] deserves to be read by all scholars interested in serious discussion of the issue.... Van De Walle's work...provides a useful road map of a jumbled and bewildering economic world." American Political Science Review

"A valuable contribution to the literature, this book broadens the discussion of current development strategies to include an in-depth analysis of the so-called neopatrimonal state as the potential source of failure of African development." CHOICE

From the Publisher