Business, Politics, and the State in Africa: Challenging the Orthodoxies on Growth and Transformation

In recent years Africa appears to have turned a corner economically. It is posting increased growth rates and is no longer the world's slowest growing region. Commentators are beginning to ask whether emerging from Africa is a new generation of 'lion' economies to challenge the East Asian 'tigers'? This book goes behind the headlines to examine the conditions necessary not just for growth in Africa but for a wider business and economic transformation. Contrary to neoliberal economics, it argues that governments can play an important role in this through selective interventions to correct market failures, and, controversially, that neo-patrimonial governance need not be an obstacle to improved business and economic conditions.

Drawing on a variety of timely case studies - including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana - this provocative book provides a radical new theory of the political and institutional conditions required for pro-poor growth in Africa.

Tim Kelsall is currently living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, working freelance as an Associate of the Africa, Power and Politics Programme, and as a Resource Person for the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research.