Between Liberalisation and Oppression: The Politics of Structural Adjustment in AfricaP. Thandika Mkandawire, Adebayo O. Olukoshi No one can fail to be aware of the incredible impact that the IMF and the World Bank have had on Africa. Their structural adjustment programmes were deliberately designed to shock African economies into free market reform and ensuing stability. But when `getting the prices right' first swamped the World Bank's African economic plans in the early 1980s, few bothered to analyse the politics of a reform package whose immediate impact was violent and unsettling. While Africa has come a long way since then, the goal of market reform must be as important as the task of understanding the politics of unleashing the forces of the market. Not least, is the question of democratisation, which the Bank itself now attempts to force through with loan conditions. This book is the culmination of intense debate by African authors across the continent. Three sections make up a comprehensive analysis of adjustment regimes, their perspectives and the political context in which they have survived, or not. Country case studies in both anglophone and francophone Africa round up the analysis. |
Contents
Issues and Perspectives in the Politics of Structural | 1 |
Fiscal Structure State Contraction and Political Reponses | 20 |
Adjustment Regimes and Politics in Africa | 52 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
adjustment policies African countries agricultural authoritarianism Babangida Bangura Bank's Benin capital CFA franc Chazan civil society conditionality Congo Congress context Côte d'Ivoire country's debt decline demands democracy democratic democratisation devaluation developed countries domestic donors economic crisis economic recovery emerged ERP/SAP expenditure export fiscal forces foreign exchange Fourah Bay College Freetown Fund Ghana Ghanaian implementation important income increased industrial informal sector informalisation institutions interests intervention issue LDCs leaders leadership major Malawi measures military million neo-liberal Nigeria official Olukoshi opposition organisations organizations parastatals party PNDC political economy politics of adjustment politics of structural post-colonial poverty President pressures privatisation production reforms regime rent-seeking rentier repression responses revenue role rural Senegal Sierra Leone social groups stabilisation Stevens strategy structural adjustment programme Sub-Saharan Africa subsidies taxes trade unions University urban wage workers World Bank Zambia