Editorial Reviews
Review
'This landmark work presents a searching and persuasive political explanation of Africa's failure to achieve development despite two decades of externally imposed economic reform ... A major contribution to our understanding of Africa's political economy.' Foreign Affairs
'This is economics by someone who understands African politics. No Africanists can afford not to read it.' Commonwealth & Comparative Politics
'A well-written book is usually a persuasive book, and this book is well written. Its reasoning is more than persuasive, however: it is compelling in its gloomy conclusions, in which the failure of economic reform seems inescapable. ... Van der Walle's book is probably the best among a spate of literature that explains the African economic predicament in terms of the patrimonial nature of politics.' The Journal of Development Studies
Book Description
This book explains why African countries have remained mired in a disastrous economic crisis since the late 1970s. It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments that do not really believe that reform will be effective.
African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999 (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions),Nicolas van de Walle,Cambridge University Press,0521008360,1960-,Africa,Development - Economic Development,Economic Conditions,Economic policy,General,Political Science,Politics / Current Events,Politics and government,Politics/International Relations,Africa--Economic conditions--1960-,African studies,Political Science / General,Political economy,Political science & theory
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