Political Economy of Africa

Ake, Claude

Business & Money

Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd

Economics

Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down.
 An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development.
 In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.

Democracy and Development in Africa

Reference

Brookings Institution Press

Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down.
An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development.
In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.

Brookings Inst Pr

Revolutionary Pressures in Africa (Africa series)

Revolutionary Pressures in Africa

History

World

Zed Books

Issues dealt with in this study of democracy in Africa, include underdevelopment and economic marginality, ethnic consciousness and the nature of political power in Africa. A true African democracy, Ake argues, is both a second independence and a deep need for self- realisation. The late distinguished scholar outlines, in a sweeping continental survey, how the democratic commitment has transformed Africa's legacy of dictatorship, military regimes and single-party rule. He also demonstrates how cleverly conservative autocrats have spoken the democratic message and subverted its promise. The danger of trivialising democracy into successive multi-party elections is now very real, and the books spells out the hazards facing nascent democratic movements.

The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa (Gender Institute Series)

Politics & Social Sciences

Women's Studies

Codesria

Is Africa Democratizing

Politics & Government

Malthouse Pr

The Marginalization of Africa: Notes on a Productive Confusion

Claude Ake's study is primarily concerned with what he terms 'the most perinicious form of imperialism' namely scientific knowledge. Ake analyses how Western social sciences, whether consciously or inadvertently, foist capitalist values and capitalist development on the Third World, and serve imperialist ends. He unravels the theory of political development/'westernisation', exposing its ideological character and condemning 'Western development studies as worse than useless'. He then develops his analysis of the imperialist and ideological characteristics of Western social sciences to posit alternatives which may more successfully overcome permanent underdevelopment; and advocates a struggle for a new model of social sciences which is socialist-orientated, and that developing countries reject Western models. The study was first published in 1979, revised in 1982, is newly reissued, and for the first time, widely available outside Africa. Claude Ake (1939-1996) was one of Africa's most distinguished political and social scientists and democrats of the twentieth century, writing widely and polemically on what were his life-long concerns of democracy and the future of the African continent.

Social Science as Imperialism. the Theory of Political Development

Africa

Ibadan Univ. Press

The New World Order: A View from the South

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ake, Claude. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ake, Claude