REVIEW PAPER
INTRODUCTION
The search for alternative paths to development in Africa today is much more entrenched than
ever before given the changes in the global political economy of the twenty first century. If
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Africa is going to ensure that it continue to play any significant role in this twenty first century
then there is need to find a model of a prototype Africa democratic developmental state to guide
the continents progress.
The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the last two decades has plainly not worked but
so did the purely strong state led growth of the earlier decades. However, it is increasingly being
realized that the states role in Africa context is crucial in devising the broad development
programme and implementing any projects hinging upon the involvement of individual homes,
entrepreneurs and private organizations as wells as public institutions. State activism or
participation in the economy is very central.
By most developmental parameters, Africa fares badly with the rest of the world. There is a rise
in poverty, unemployment, insecurity and inequality across many African states. Yet there is
urgent need to promote social economic progress as the continent stands a danger of the
degenerating future into chaos if development is not promoted and the contradiction that appears
to foster conflict in the society are not reduced or eliminated.
Although, at independence most African states appeared to be developmental and most state
efforts were geared towards addressing issues of poverty, ignorance and disease, today the
performance of many African states leaves a lot to be desired. While other regions like South
East Asia have managed to make a leap forward, Africa seem to be very much retrogressing. The
big question is: why cant Africa learn from the South East Asian experience of a
developmental state model and use it to guide its own progress?
Many critiques have given their explanations for Africas failure to progress including such
factors like unequal trading relationships with the western world, corruption, high debt profile
and failure to regionalize among other things. At the same time however, Africa is known to be
rich continent with abundant natural endowment ranging from gold to diamonds to crude oil to
cheap labour supplies etc, all of which would offer the continent a sound industrial base. It is
African states and their leadership that have dismally failed to capitalize on these resources and
today, the continent continues to register the highest levels of poverty, unemployment, inequality
and consequently experiencing more inter and intra ethnic conflicts. The continent today is
characterized by famines, civil war, insurgency, trade imbalances, low industrial and agricultural
productivity, HIV/AIDS and recently Ebola scourge.
It is no wonder that most African states are top on the list of world banks most poor and heavily
indebted nations. It is very unfortunate that most countries at independence like Nigeria, Uganda,
Kenya and Ghana were at the same level as the Asian tigers although today they have all been
left behind.
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developmental states in Africa are impossibility. As earlier noted, examples do exist in Africa
that contradicts to a large extent this position. Botswana is one of such case and some of the
developmental efforts promoted in Uganda by the state are of interest (see Mbabazi and Taylor,
2005). African countries can borrow some of the experiences of the East Asian model and
contextualize these to Africans realities. Clearly, the type of interventions aimed at promoting
the economy and at sharing the benefits across the wider society have to be varied. In terms of
lessons learned from the past in Asia, it is true that government intervention can and has played a
crucial role in propitiating the development of the factors that facilitates some form of auspicious
participation in the global market. The regulation of foreign direct investment (FDI) for instance
in building up local capacity and employment has been a key to this strategy and needs to be
replicated in African economies. Most African countries have wantonly opened up their
economies with hardly any restrictions to their detriment.
The four major components of a developmental states as advanced by Johnson (1982) include:
the presence of a small but professional and efficient state bureaucracy: a political milieu where
this bureaucracy has enough space to operate and take policy initiatives independent of overly
intrusive interventions by vested interests; the crafting of methods of state intervention in the
economy without sabotaging the market principle; a pilot organization such as he found in MITI.
The market was seen as a device that could be utilized for advancing a developmental agenda
whereby the state involved itself in setting substantive social and economic goals (Johnson1982).
As Oni (1991) puts, it is the synergy between the state and the market which provides the basis
for outstanding development experience. This understanding undoubtedly undermines those who
see the state as being in opposition to the market but rather points in the direction of the
successful developmental state.
Industrial policy is not an alternative to the market but is what the state does when it
intentionally alters incentives within markets in order to influence the behavior of civilian
producers, consumers and investors. Altering market incentives, reducing risks, offering
entrepreneurial visions and managing conflicts are some of the functions of developmental state
(Johnson 1982). Both Uganda and Botswana have demonstrated such qualities (see Mbabazi and
Taylor 2005). It should be noted that in talking of developmental states, what it really meant is
state capitalist developmental states, following Gordon Whites three typologies: state capitalist,
intermediate and state socialist (White 1984).
Some authors have argued that the developmental state is unique to East Asia (Oni 1991) and
therefore cannot be replicated elsewhere. Cline (1982) has asserted that the Asian model cannot
be generalized because its inherent constraints on international markets, i.e. that only a certain
number of states can pursue the export-oriented growth model side of the developmental state
otherwise everyone else would introduce protectionist barriers to them. But this is not wholly the
case as demonstrated by either Botswana or arguably Ugandas experiences. Other recent work
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has demonstrated that developmental states are not limited to East Asia but have been achieved
elsewhere. In his study of Mauritus, Richard Kearney (1990) presumed effective government
macro-economic policy leadership in both monetary and fiscal areas. It further presumes the
maintenance of an entrepreneurial climate so that diversification and exploitations of new
manufacturing niches can proceed in the private sector. Government policy choice is critical to
development. Other authors have indeed concluded that Mauritius is a developmental state
(Meisinhelder 1997)
Leftwich (1995) has provided six major defining characteristics of a typical developmental state,
which includes: a determined developmental elite, relative autonomy; a powerful competent and
insulated bureaucracy; a weak and subordinated civil society; the effective management of nonstate economic interest; and legitimacy and performance.
Evans (1995) agrees that a capable and autonomous bureaucracy that makes use of the market
and formulates national goals and one that has the competence and resources to implement these
goals is crucial.
In a comprehensive review of a neo-liberal objections to the developmental state, Chang (1999)
argued that successful developmental states have pursued policies that coordinate investment
plans; have a national development vision implying that the state is an entrepreneurial agent, that
engage in institution building to promote growth and development, and finally, play a role in
conflicts that arise out of reactions and counteractions to the winner and losers as it were.
It should be noted though that developmental states in Africa cannot be or will not be similar to
those found in Asia, but relegating the role of the state in Africa today needs to be seriously
challenged.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Development is an instinct of nations. According to World Development Report (World Bank,
1997), provision of goods and services like rules and institutions that flourish markets and
promotes peoples lives is the foundation of good governments in a changing world. Hence,
without capacities to develop, the government cannot be regarded as good governments. The
changing world puts forward a much higher and more urgent requirement for development. Then
the point is that without a developmental state, economic development is inconceivable in many
undeveloped countries. Moreover, third world countries account for most proportions on the
earth, and this is likely to be the basic pattern of the globalizing world in a long time. To
compete with developed counterparts, developing countries are apt to choose developmental
state so as to make best use of their advantages.
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Promoting developmental states with the characteristics as advanced by Leftwich (1995) is very
crucial for Africas progress and development. There is need to appreciate those few countries
that have demonstrated progress in these areas and learn lessons for replication elsewhere on the
continent. In the context of Africa, state that is purposefully driven to promote development and
that utilizes the offices of the state in order to facilitate improvement, alongside other actors such
as private sector and civil society can in the particular circumstances find itself, be regarded as
developmental and this is what need to be promoted in Africa. There is no country in the world
that has been able to develop in the context of free markets alone. Developmental activism is no
longer optional but vital in Africa. The East Asian tigers practiced developmental state activism
and economic nationalism enabling them to produce goods that had a potential to penetrate the
global markets. This is what Africa needs to do much as the scenario is different today. Emphasis
on high-level bureaucratic competence and a conducive institutional framework for African
countries among other factors is very crucial if Africa wants to remain relevant in the 21st
century.
The paper therefore recommends that African states should adopt the Developmental State
Model in order to experience sustainable economic development and remain relevant in world
politics in the 21st century.
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