Democracy and Development in Africa

185 Pages·1995·0.8 MB·English

by  Claude Ake

DEMOCRACY AND
DEVELOPMENT
IN AFRICA
1
Claude Ake

DEMOCRACY AND
DEVELOPMENT
IN AFRICA

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
Washington, D.C.
2
Copyright © 1996
THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W, Washington, D.C 20036
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data

Ake, Claude.
Democracy and development in Africa / Claude Ake.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8157-0220-5.-ISBN 0-8157-0219-1
1. Africa-Economic conditions-1960- 2. Africa-Economic
policy.
3. Pressure groups-Africa 4. Economic development-Political
aspects. 5. Africa-Politics and government-1960- 6.
Democracy-Africa. 7. Africa-Colonial influence. I. Title.
HC80O.A648 1996
339.96-dc2O
95-32540
CIP

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39-48-1984.

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Printed by R. R. Donnelley and Sons Co.
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3
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James A. Johnson Stephen Friedman Jessica Tuchman Mathews
Chairman Vartan Gregorian David 0. Maxwell
Bernadine P. Healy Constance Berry Newman
Leonard Abramson Samuel Hellman Maconda Brown O'Connor
Michael H. Armacost Warren Hellman Samuel Pisar
Ronald J. Arnault Robert A. Helman Rozanne L. Ridgway
Elizabeth E. Bailey Thomas W. Jones Judith S. Rodin
Rex J. Bates James A. Joseph Michael P. Schulhof
Kenneth W. Dam Breene M. Kerr Robert H. Smith
John C. Danforth Thomas G. Labrecque John D. Zeglis
D. Ronald Daniel Donald F. McHenry Ezra K. Zilkha
Walter Y. Elisha

Honorary, Trustees

Vincent M Barnett, Jr. Robert F. Erburu Donald S. Perkins
Barton A Biggs Robert D. Haas J. Woodward Redmond
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Edward W. Carter Andrew Heiskell James D. Robinson III
Frank T. Cary Roy M. Huffington Howard D. Samuel
A. W. Clausen Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. B. Francis Saul II
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William T. Coleman, Jr. James T. Lynn Henry B. Schacht
Lloyd N. Cutler William McC. Martin, Jr. Robert Brookings Smith
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Douglas Dillon Mary Patterson McPherson John C. Whitehead
Charles W. Duncan, Jr. Arjay Miller James D. Wolfensohn
4
5
Foreword

Over the past three decades, Africa's preoccupation with development has had
only marginal success. Most Africans are worse off than they were, health and
nutrition problems are widespread, and infrastructure is eroding. Many studies
have suggested causes for these problems: colonialism, corruption, insufficient
technical assistance, unfavorable terms of trade, inadequate entrepreneurial
skills, and incompetent management, among others. But Claude Ake believes
that political conditions are the greatest obstacle to development.
In most of Africa, colonial rule left a legacy of intense commitment to
independence but few ideas regarding appropriate economic policies.
Immediately after the new nations achieved independence, the political
environment was hostile to development. The internal struggle for power was
the absolute focus of attention. But the new leaders soon realized that they
needed some new legitimizing theme to replace liberation ideology, and they
settled on economic development as a natural alternative. With sparse
resources of their own to work with, however, they looked to foreign powers to
finance their aspirations and thereby reintroduced in the economic context
some of the issues of dependence that they had settled in the political context.
Ake gives an overview of the development policies that have ensued and
documents the pattern of failure. He examines the alternatives that can be
considered: economic development based on traditional agriculture, political
development based on decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous
communities to provide some refuge from the centralized state. His purpose is
to outline the fundamental redesign he believes will be necessary.
Claude Ake is director of the Centre for Advanced Social Science in Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. He completed this manuscript during his fellowship term as
a visiting scholar with the Africa Project at the Brookings
6
Institution. Earlier versions of this manuscript were read by Robert Berg,
Coralie Bryant, and Miguel Schloss. Brookings is grateful to them for their
comments and suggestions.
The manuscript was edited by Caroline Lalire and Deborah Styles and
verified by Andrew Solomon and Diane Chido. Judy Buckelew, Stacey
Seaman, and Louise Skillings prepared the manuscript for publication. Carlotta
Ribar proofread the book, Susan Woollen prepared it for typesetting, and
Robert E. Elwood prepared the index. Partial funding for this project was
provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Brookings gratefully acknowledges
their support.
The views expressed in this book are those of the author and should not be
ascribed to the people whose assistance is acknowledged above, to the
organizations that supported the project, or to the trustees, officers, or staff
members of the Brookings Institution.

MICHAEL H. ARMACOST
President
November 1995
Washington, D.C.
7
Contents

Chapter 1 The Development Paradigm and Its Politics 1
Chapter 2 A Confusion of Agendas 18
Chapter 3 Improbable Strategies 42
Chapter 4 Blocked Options 98
Chapter 5 The Residual Option 124
References 161
Index 167
Tables
3-1 Lending to Borrowers in Africa, by Sector,
Fiscal Years 1984-93 44
3-2 Agricultural and Population Growth Rates in
Sub-Saharan Africa, 1970-92 66
3-3 Tanzanian Development Budgets, 1948-61 67
3-4 Distribution of Trade in the Francophone
Countries of Africa, including Madagascar,
1950-55 68
8
3-5 Principal Suppliers of Imports for Nigeria and
Principal Customers for Its Exports and
Re-exports, 1948-50, 1957-58 70
3-6 Changes in the Distribution of Manufacturing
Production in Nine Selected African Countries, 73
Two Periods, 1960-67, 1974-80
3-7 Sources of Growth of Manufacturing output and 74
Import Substitution in Three African Countries
1963-72
4-1 Financial Resources Available from the Lome 101
Convention, 1975-95
4-2 External Debt and Debt Service Ratios of
Selected Indebted Developing Country Groups, 105
1980-87
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1

The Development
Paradigm and Its
Politics
Three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa have yielded
meager returns. African economies have been stagnating or regressing. For
most Africans, real incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health
prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructure is
breaking down, as are some social institutions.
Many factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of the
development enterprise in Africa: the colonial legacy, social pluralism and its
centrifugal tendencies, the corruption of leaders, poor labor discipline, the lack
of entrepreneurial skills, poor planning and incompetent management,
inappropriate policies, the stifling of market mechanisms, low levels of
technical assistance, the limited inflow of foreign capital, failing commodity
prices and unfavorable terms of trade, and low levels of saving and investment.
These factors are not irrelevant to the problem. Alone or in combination they
could be serious impediments to development.
However, the assumption so readily made that there has been a failure of
development is misleading. The problem is not so much that development has
failed as that it was never really on the agenda in the first place, By all
indications, political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to
development. In what follows I consider how African politics has been
constituted to prevent the pursuit of development and the emergence of
relevant and effective development paradigms and programs.

The Political Legacy of Colonialism
To understand this phenomenon, one must begin with colonialism and its
political legacy. Colonialism in Africa was markedly different from the
1