Volume 28 2001 Issue 88
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Africa^ |*REVIEWOF n ^ Political Economy EDITORS The Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) is published quarterly by Carfax Chris Allen, Jan Burgess and Morris Szeftel Publishing Company for the ROAPE international collective. Now 28 years old, ROAPE is a fully BOOK REVIEWS refereed journal covering all aspects of African political economy. ROAPE has always involved Ray Bush, Roy Love and Giles Mohan the readership in shaping the journal's coverage, welcoming contributions from grassroots organi- sations, women's organisations, trade unions and EDITORIAL WORKING GROUP political groups. The journal is unique in the Chris Allen, Carolyn Baylies, Sarah Bracking, comprehensiveness of its bibliographic referenc- Lynne Brydon, Janet Bujra, Jan Burgess, Ray Bush, ing, information monitoring, statistical documen- Carolyne Dennis, Graham Harrison, Jon Knox, tation and coverage of work-in-progress. Roy Love, Giles Mohan, Colin Murray, Mike Powell, Marcus Power, David Simon, Colin Editorial correspondence, including manuscripts Stoneman, Morris Szeftel, Tina Wallace, A. B. for submission, should be sent to Jan Burgess, Zack-Williams. ROAPE Publications Ltd., P.O. Box 678, Sheffield SI 1BF, UK. Tel: 44 +(0)114 267-6880; Fax 44 + (0)114 267-6881; e-mail: [email protected]. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Africa: Rok Ajulu (Grahamstown), Yusuf Advertising: USA/Canada: The Advertising Bangura (Zaria), Billy Cobbett (Johannesburg), Manager, PCG, 875 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite Antonieta Coelho (Luanda), Bill Freund 81, Cambridge MA 02139, USA. EU/Rest of the (Durban), Jibril Ibrahim (Zaria), Amadina World: The Advertising Manager, Taylor & Lihamba (Dar es Salaam), Trevor Parfitt (Cairo), Francis, P.O. Box 25, Abingdon, Oxon., OX14 3UE, Lloyd Sachikonye (Harare). UK. Tel: +44 (0)1235 401 000; Fax: +44 (0)1235 401 550. Canada: Jonathan Barker (Toronto), Bonnie Campbell (Montreal), Piotr Dutkiewicz (Carlton), Business correspondence, including orders and Dixon Eyoh (Toronto), John Loxley (Winnipeg). remittances relating to subscriptions, back num- bers and offprints, should be addressed to the Cuba: David Gonzalez (Havana/CEAMO). publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, Customer services Department, Rankine Road, Basingstoke, Europe: Bjorn Beckman (Stockholm), M. R. Hants RG24 8PR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1256 813 002; Bhagavan (Stockholm), Jean Copans (Paris), Fax: +44 (0)1256 330 245 Martin Doombos (The Hague), Tore Linne Eriksen (Oslo), John Markakis (Exeter), Claude Permission to reprint or translate material from Meillassoux (Paris), Ken Post (The Hague), Review of African Political Economy should be Francis Snyder (Aix en Provence), Tamas Szentes sought from ROAPE Publications Ltd. Consent to (Budapest). copy for general distribution, for promotion, for creating new work, or for resale must be specifi- US: Hussein Adam (Holy Cross), Mahmood cally obtained in writing from ROAPE Publica- Mamdani (New York), Prexy Nesbitt (Chicago), tions Ltd. Meredeth Turshen (Rutgers), Gloria Thomas- Emeagwali (Central Connecticut), Carol ISSN 0305-6244 Thompson (Arizona). ©2001 ROAPE Publications Ltd UK: A. M. Babu (1924-1996), Lionel Cliffe, Basil Davidson, Caroline Ifeka, Raufu Mustafa, Phil O'Keefe, Peter Lawrence, S. Riley (1949-1998), Pepe Roberts, Kevin Watkins and Gavin Williams. Review of African Political Economy No.88:149-153 © ROAPE Publications Ltd., 2001 ISSN 0305-6244 Africa's Future: That Sinking Feeling Ray Bush & Giles Mohan This issue of The Review revisits issues of governance, civil society and human rights in Africa. It does so just as the issue reappears on the agenda of international agencies and western governments. Indeed, this year's fashionable new ideological robes (as far as development and the South are concerned) is the idea that economic growth will be driven by greater political participation. This lies at the heart of the propositions being advanced by various donors about a 'multifaceted development challenge' aimed at creating a 'window of opportunity' to end 'the marginalisation of Africa's people'. Like all the other formulations articulated from this quarter over the last thirty years, it deserves analysis less for what it might do for Africans than for what it is likely to do to them; in other words, for what it tells us about its imperialist design. The British contribution to this changing discourse is a case in point. Tony Blair's 'Africa Partnership Initiative' and the British Government's Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor (2000) argue the need to help 'developing countries build the effective government systems needed to reform their economic management, make markets work better for poor people and meet the challenges of globalisation' (HMG, 2000:23). Effective government, as Crawford's review in this issue of the DFID White Paper notes, is seen as necessary to carry out basic functions and to be more responsive and democratic. Incredibly, the mechanism regarded by the British Government as being necessary to enable effective government to develop in the South is making globalisation work for the poor. The internationalisation of capital which has marginalised the vast majority of Africans and subordinated sub- Saharan Africa to the interests of western business and geo-strategic interest is, in the 21st century, now to be put to work to help the poor of the world's poorest continent. Exactly how this miraculous conversion is to occur is, naturally, less than clear. Unsurprisingly this is also the message of recent World Bank publications. Among these, one entitled Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? (2000) argues that Africa can 'claim' the new century if crucial progress is made on four fronts: improving governance and resolving conflict; investing in people; increasing competitiveness and diversifying economies; and reducing aid dependency and strengthening partnerships. This optimism is set against the recognition that 'average income per capita is lower than [it was] at the end of the 1960s' (2000:1). Excluding South Africa, average per capita income in 1997 was $315 - making Africa the poorest part of the world. Indeed, as the Bank's report admits, the total GDP of all 48 countries on the continent combined comes to little more than the income of Belgium, while the average GDP for sub-Saharan African countries (again excluding South Africa) is, at about $2 billion, no more than the output of a town of 60,000 people in a rich country (2000:7). Now the Bank and other international agencies pursue the idea that economic growth will be driven by greater political participation; this is perhaps at the heart of their 150 Review of African Political Economy proposed 'multifaceted development challenge' offering a 'window of opportunity to reverse the marginalisation of Africa's people'. But that change, even according to the Bank's own assessment, requires an annual growth rate of at least 7 per cent to meet international targets of reducing world poverty by 2015 - and that level of growth is nowhere to be found. Rejecting this false optimism, Bonnie Campbell in this issue carefully documents the way in which the international financial agencies progressively promoted a governance agenda after 1945 as the World Bank and IMF moved far beyond their original terms of reference. She notes how various editions of the World Development Report promoted state reform and governance programmes based on universalistic characterisations of democratic politics. In consequence, they failed to appreciate (or were not interested in acknowledging?) the specific historical experiences and political dynamics of countries in Africa or elsewhere in the South. And since their superficial theories did not grasp these realities, it became difficult to see how political and economic liberalisation could be effective and sustainable or how they could work outside the context of a strong local state. Campbell also notes how terms like 'governance', 'capacity building' and 'state efficiency' are used regularly by policy makers without clarification of who the promoted and desired reforms are for, or to what end they are directed. Moreover, while importance is regularly attached by agencies and NGOs to political participation (normally through revising electoral procedures and facilitating party politics), little is said or done to ensure that formal political structures permit effective participation or discussion about what form they might take. Nor is there much evidence of concern about whether or not there is any popular discussion of how political agendas are set or how those handed down by local elites or the IFIs can be challenged. But then, such genuine grassroots democratic participation is not what the donors are about. Thus, Campbell grounds her critique of the World Bank and the IMF in an examination of the politics of transition and crisis in the Ivory Coast. She explores the extraordinary political shuffling of the post Houphouet-Boigny period, the role of military intervention and the impatience of the World Bank and IMF about the inability of the authoritarian Abidjan regime to accelerate economic reform and secure the interests of international finance. Mohan and Holland address the question of human rights and development. Throughout the 1990s the debates about human rights and development have increasingly converged and the authors question whether or not the emerging human rights-based approach to development, honed in the period of revisionist neo- liberalism, can deliver meaningful improvements to the