Business, Politics, and the State in Africa

Business, Politics, and the State in Africa
Author: Doctor Tim Kelsall
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-01-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1780323336

In recent years Africa appears to have turned a corner economically. It is posting increased growth rates and is no longer the world's slowest growing region. Commentators are beginning to ask whether emerging from Africa is a new generation of 'lion' economies to challenge the East Asian 'tigers'? This book goes behind the headlines to examine the conditions necessary not just for growth in Africa but for a wider business and economic transformation. Contrary to neoliberal economics, it argues that governments can play an important role in this through selective interventions to correct market failures, and, controversially, that neo-patrimonial governance need not be an obstacle to improved business and economic conditions. Drawing on a variety of timely case studies - including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana - this provocative book provides a radical new theory of the political and institutional conditions required for pro-poor growth in Africa.

State-Business Relations and Economic Development in Africa and India

State-Business Relations and Economic Development in Africa and India
Author: Kunal Sen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2013-05-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135129061

When the state and business interact effectively they can promote a more efficient allocation of scarce resources, appropriate industrial policy and a more effective and prioritised removal of key obstacles to growth, than when the two sides fail to co-operate or engage in harmful collusion. This book, based on original empirical research undertaken in Africa and India, addresses what constitutes the effectiveness of state-business relations, what explains their formation and evolution over time and whether effective state-business relations matter for economic performance. Analysing the effects of state-business relations on economic performance at both the macro and micro levels, the book concludes that where effective state-business relations are established – either through formal or informal institutional patterns and relationships – the growth effects are generally positive. Establishing, sustaining and renewing effective state-business relations are political processes. The better organized the business community and the government are for purposes of such relations, the more effective state-business relations will be in negotiating growth enhancing policies. The book is of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, management, economics and political science.

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa
Author: Alex de Waal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2015-10-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0745695612

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa delves into the business of politics in the turbulent, war-torn countries of north-east Africa. It is a contemporary history of how politicians, generals and insurgents bargain over money and power, and use of war to achieve their goals. Drawing on a thirty-year career in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, including experience as a participant in high-level peace talks, Alex de Waal provides a unique and compelling account of how these countries’ leaders run their governments, conduct their business, fight their wars and, occasionally, make peace. De Waal shows how leaders operate on a business model, securing funds for their ‘political budgets’ which they use to rent the provisional allegiances of army officers, militia commanders, tribal chiefs and party officials at the going rate. This political marketplace is eroding the institutions of government and reversing statebuildingÑand it is fuelled in large part by oil exports, aid funds and western military assistance for counter-terrorism and peacekeeping. The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa is a sharp and disturbing book with profound implications for international relations, development and peacemaking in the Horn of Africa and beyond.

Unlocking Africa's Business Potential

Unlocking Africa's Business Potential
Author: Landry Signe
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0815737394

Africa welcomes business investment and offers some of the world's highest returns and impacts Africa has tremendous economic potential and offers rewarding opportunities for global businesses looking for new markets and long-term investments with favorable returns. Africa has been one of the world's fastest-growing regions over the past decade, and by 2030 will be home to nearly 1.7 billion people and an estimated $6.7 trillion worth of consumer and business spending. Increased political stability in recent years and improving regional integration are making market access easier, and business expansion will generate jobs for women and youth, who represent the vast majority of the population. Current economic growth and poverty-alleviation efforts mean that more than 43 percent of the continent's people will reach middle- or upper-class status by 2030. Unlocking Africa's Business Potential examines business opportunities in the eight sectors with the highest potential returns on private investment—the same sectors that will foster economic growth and diversification, job creation, and improved general welfare. These sectors include: consumer markets, agriculture and agriprocessing, information and communication technology, manufacturing, oil and gas, tourism, banking, and infrastructure and construction. The book's analysis of these sectors is based on case studies that identify specific opportunities for investment and growth, along with long-term market projections to inform decision-making. The book identifies potential risks to business and offers mitigation strategies. It also provides policymakers with solutions to attract new business investments, including how to remove barriers to business and accelerate development of the private sector.

The State in Africa

The State in Africa
Author: Tatah Mentan
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9956616125

Introduction -- Framing the problem of the state in Africa -- Historical and theoretical context -- The state in Africa in an era of capitalist globalization : a theoretical exploration -- Slavery and capitalist globalization -- Colonial globalization or the extension of European Westphalian state to Africa -- Decolonizing imperial state in Africa, 1945-60 : plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose -- African developmentalist/nationalist state? -- From welfare/developmentalist to neo-liberal nation state in Africa -- Neo-liberal assault on the state in Africa : roots of state weakness, failure and collapse -- The state in Africa and civil society in historical perspective -- Future of the state in Africa in an era of neoliberal globalization -- An African state is possible : looking back in order to look ahead.

The Palgrave Handbook of African Political Economy

The Palgrave Handbook of African Political Economy
Author: Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 1099
Release: 2020-06-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030389227

This handbook constitutes a specialist single compendium that analyses African political economy in its theoretical, historical and policy dimensions. It emphasizes the uniqueness of African political economy within a global capitalist system that is ever changing and complex. Chapters in the book discuss how domestic and international political economic forces have shaped and continue to shape development outcomes on the continent. Contributors also provoke new thinking on theories and policies to better position the continent’s economy to be a critical global force. The uniqueness of the handbook lies in linking theory and praxis with the past, future, and various dimensions of the political economy of Africa.

Democracy and Development in Africa

Democracy and Development in Africa
Author: Claude Ake
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2001-09-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815723482

Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down. An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development. In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.

The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa

The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa
Author: Wale Adebanwi
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2017
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1847011659

Multi-disciplinary examination of the role of ordinary African people as agents in the generation and distribution of well-being in modern Africa. What are the fundamental issues, processes, agency and dynamics that shape the political economy of life in modern Africa? In this book, the contributors - experts in anthropology, history, political science, economics, conflict and peace studies, philosophy and language - examine the opportunities and constraints placed on living, livelihoods and sustainable life on the continent. Reflecting on why and how the political economy of life approach is essential for understanding the social process in modern Africa, they engage with the intellectual oeuvre of the influential Africanist economic anthropologist Jane Guyer, who provides an Afterword. The contributors analyse the politicaleconomy of everyday life as it relates to money and currency; migrant labour forces and informal and formal economies; dispossession of land; debt and indebtedness; socio-economic marginality; and the entrenchment of colonial andapartheid pasts. Wale Adebanwi is the Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at the University of Oxford. He is author of Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning (University of Rochester Press).

The Postcolonial State in Africa

The Postcolonial State in Africa
Author: Crawford Young
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2012-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 029929143X

"A highly readable, sweeping, and yet detailed analysis of the African state in all its failures and moments of hope. Crawford Young manages to touch upon all the important issues in the discipline and crucial developments in the recent history of the African continent. This book will be a classic."---Pierre Englebert, author of Africa Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow --

Violent Non-State Actors in Africa

Violent Non-State Actors in Africa
Author: Caroline Varin
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2017-04-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319513524

This book explores the rise and impact of violent non-state actors in contemporary Africa and the implications for the sovereignty and security of African states. Each chapter tackles a unique angle on violent organizations on the continent with the view of highlighting the conditions that lead to the rise and radicalization of these groups. The chapters further examine the ways in which governments have responded to the challenge and the national, regional and international strategies that they have adopted as a result. Chapter contributors to this volume examine the emergence of Islamist terrorists in Nigeria, Mali and Libya; rebels in DR Congo, Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Rwanda; and warlords and pirates in Somalia, Uganda and Sierra Leone.