Integration Theories and Economic Development: a Case Study of the Political and Social Dynamics of ECOWAS

Integration Theories and Economic Development: A Case Study of the Political and Social Dynamics of ECOWAS By Douglas Kudzo-Kota Zormelo PhD Thesis Presented at the University of London, 1994. The London School of Economics and Political Science. UMI Number: U077572 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U077572 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I H-^rS F O f POLmCAL 7 Ho <2. AND . ✓=2 11 Lf-( S Z Table o f Contents Pages Acknowledgements 1 Abstract 2 List of Tables 3 Introduction 4 Chapter One: Reasons For Regional Integration: A GeneralOverview 20 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Primary Goods and Deteriorating Terms of Trade 1.3 Export of Primary Goods and Economic Growth 1.4 Terms of Trade and Industrialisation 1.5 Economic Framework of Regional Integration: 1.6 Dynamic Theory of Regional Economic Integration 1.7 Conclusion Chapter Two:Intemational Theory of Regional Integration 70 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Functionalism 2.3 Neo-Functionalism 2.4 The Communication Approach 2.5 The Federalist Approach 2.6 The Contribution of Integration Theories 2.7 Conclusion Chapter Three: The Political Context of West African Regional Integration 141 3.1 Introduction 3.2 General Characteristics of West African Politics 3.3 Antecedents to ECOWAS 3.4 The Formation of ECOWAS 3.5 Regional Politics ater the formation of ECOWAS 3.6 Domestic Politics and Regional Integration 3.7 Political Variables in the Analysis of Regional of Regional Integration Among Developing Countries 3.8 Institutional Structure of ECOWAS 3.9 Conclusion Chapter Four: The Social Context of West African Regional Integration 210 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Ethnicity: Definition, Concepts and Characteristics in West Africa 4.3 Ethnicity, Political Structure and National Unity 4.4 Ethnicity and Intra-Regional Integration 4.5 Trade Unions 4.6 Business Groups 4.7 Conclusion Chapter Five: The Extent of Regional Integration in West Africa 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Extent of Regional Collective Decision Making 5.3 ECOWAS since 1975 5.4 Trade as a Measure of Integration 5.5 Conclusion Chapter Six: Reasons for Slow Progress of ECOWAS 6.1 Introduction 6.2 National Interest, Dependence and Demand Flows 6.3 Intra-Regionsl Relations and Demand Flows 6.4 Internal Politics and Demand Flows 6.5 Resources and ECOWAS Integration 6.6 Leadership and ECOWAS Integration 6.7 Conclusion Summary and Conclusions Appencies Bibliography 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not have been written without the support of my wife Betty. Her willingness to act as a sounding board for my arguments and conclusions was invaluable in the testing of my arguments. To attempt listing all that she has done to make the study possible would fill pages. My deepest thanks therefore go to her. My children, Elorm and Delali, also deserve special thanks. They have been very patient with me and been deprived of my full attention during the period of the study. A special thanks goes to my supervisor, Professor James Mayall, without whose help I would not have started the study in the first place. During the time of the project itself, his guidance and painstaking scrutiny of the writing helped in making the finished work what it is. I also received moral support from my good friend Bill Puplampu and John Mgbere, themselves PhD candidates at the time that I was writing my thesis. David Shaw, Brian Barker, Tony Gilpin, Judith Zormelo and several others were all very supportive during these past years. Their prayers have been invaluable. My parents, the Right Rev. A.K Zormelo and Mrs C. A Zormelo also deserve special thanks for their support. The schorlarships office of the London School of Economics helped me a lot and the award of the Montague Burton Studentship was an invaluable source of inspiration and income for my study. The African Educational Trust also provided much needed funds for the final preparation of the thesis for presentation. God's grace kept my body and soul together over the duration of the thesis, and I give Him the glory for His love and care over the period. 2 ABSTRACT The study is a multidimensional analysis of regional economic integration with special reference to the Economic Community of West African States( ECOWAS ). It looks at the interaction between economics, politics and society in the context of integration and asks if the predominantly economic and mainly a priori advantages postulated by integration theory are feasible in West Africa. The thesis is both descriptive and analytical. First it paints the political and social landscape of West Africa in broad strokes. Using the picture thus created, it analyses integration in the sub-region by measuring the extent of integration achieved by ECOWAS since its formation in 1975. A heuristic paradigm, originally proposed by Leon Lindberg, is used to measure and explain the level of integration achieved so far. Field research, of a preliminary kind, is also used to examine the impact of society on national politics and intra-regional relations, and hence on regional co-operation and integration. The conclusions of the thesis include: the need for a revision of the dynamic theory of regional integration to formulate process mechanisms that can be implemented by developing countries; regional collective decision making is extremely difficult in unstable political systems; the need to tone down the exaggerated expectations of regional integration among developing countries; that tribes across borders have both positive and negative implications for integration; and that the ideology of the dynamic theory of integration is rapidly becoming obsolete in that dirigisme is no longer a viable policy option for most governments. Despite the need for higher levels of economic interaction among developing countries there is no reason, from our study, to believe that such relations will be different from those that pertain in international relations generally. The issues of national interest are just as salient in the interaction between developing countries as they are in the relations between the developed and developing countries. The study did not find any overwhelming desire among West African countries to co-operate. Neither did it find a cosmopolitanism that puts the regional good over the national interest. It therefore calls into question the premise on which integration among developing countries is based; that states ought to rationalise their industries. 3 List of Tables 1. Indexes of Terms of Trade of ECOWAS countries. 2. Indexes of Export quantities of ECOWAS countries. 3. Relationship Between Trade and Government Revenue. 4. Vector Representation of the Functional Scope of ECOWAS, 1975-1990. 5. Schedule of Tariff Reduction in ECOWAS. 6. Intra-Regional Trade of ECOWAS. 7. Percentage Distribution of Gross Domestic Productm of ECOWAS. 8. Minimum Agenda Implementation Status of ECOWAS. 4 INTRODUCTION The evolution of development theorising and the subsequent proliferation of paradigms, each advocating a different way to the economic development of third world countries is indicative of the complexity and near elusiveness of the economic goals that such countries have sought since independence. Much of the recasting of development paradigms and the changes in emphasis in development theorising is a response to systemic political and economic changes and mirror the strivings of the developing countries to cope with such changes. Thus the changes in emphasis from the missing component and linear growth paradigm of the Rostow1 years when developing countries were expected to replicate the development path of the West, through the delinking theories of the dependency school,2 to the mutuality of interests3 and the calls for a new international economic order, have been attempts by both theoreticians and practitioners to adjust to the changing economic and political milieu at the systemic, regional and national levels and the realities of implementing theoretical concepts. A method which became more and more popular as modernisation and import substitution industrialisation at the national level failed to yield the goals envisaged for To Rostow all societies pass through a single unique sequence of stages. The five stages he identified were based on an analysis of the British industrial revolution and felt that an increase in the rate of capital investment was essential for transition from traditional to modern society. See W. W. Rostow, Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press, 1960. 2 See Frank, A.G., 'Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America', New York: Monthly Review, 1967. 3 See Brandt, W., North-South - A Programme for Survival: Report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. Pan Books, London, 1980, also known as the Brandt Report. 5 them has been regional economic integration. This method gained emphasis, first, in Latin America (where most of the developmental theorising by third world scholars originated) as autarky became more and more difficult to sustain,4 and eventually in Africa after independence. We must emphasise, though, that we are not suggesting that regional integration theories came to replace national centred methods. What they did was to become more and more popular as an alternatives to the more narrow national plans. Indeed in pre-independent Africa the colonial administration had integrated the individual territories and achieved a certain amount of interaction between them.

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