The captured state

prospect-magazine ^ | aug. 2005 | Richard Dowden

[tbird5]

Of the many books that have crossed my desk in this year of Africa—Geldof on Africa, Sachs on poverty, the Commission for Africa report—at last here is one that hits the bullseye.

Matthew Lockwood worked in the development aid business for 20 years and wants to know why it is not working in Africa. For decades, aid donors have tried carrots, sticks and a host of measures in between to try to get development moving in Africa. They failed. Have aid donors done something wrong? Is there something that works in every other developing country but not—apparently—in Africa?

Lockwood has come up with the missing piece of the jigsaw. It is African politics. The reason that—South Africa apart—sub-Saharan Africa has not developed is that it has not been in the interests of the controlling elites to develop it. In contrast to the "developmental states" of Asia—such as South Korea and Taiwan—which grew rich in the 1970s and 1980s by educating their populations and investing in export industries, Lockwood calls Africa's states anti-developmental, arguing that they actively discourage business, trade and innovation. In Asia, the rulers, often military men or one-party-state dictators just as in Africa, had a sense of national purpose, and the state broadly functioned for the public good. In Africa, the rulers captured the state, its institutions and sources of wealth, and kept it for themselves. They used it not to generate national wealth, but as sources of patronage to reward followers. Where reforms urged by western donors have threatened their interests, they "have resisted them until they have found ways to secure those interests in other ways," says Lockwood.

[sgtbono2002]

The African leaders know what the American Democrat party knows. Ignorant people are easier to lead than those who are not as ignorant. The Democrats have been getting elected by the ignorant for the last 40years. Keep em ignorant and give them a carrot once in a while they will kep you in power.

[gondramB]

There was an old story told in development circles about an Asian student and an African student who studied in London.

Ten years later the Asian invited the African to visit and pointed to the new highway that ran past and said proudly "25 percent for me."


The African pondered this and years later when he hosted the Asian he was able to point proudly to the dirt path outside and say "100% for me."


Now I know the joke criticizes a whole continent but there is something seriously wrong with Africa and it only seems to be OK to say that when you are talking about increased aid. It never seems to be OK to criticize.

[dynachrome]

I don't know why he exempts South Africa. It is run by the same type of looters as in Zimbabwe. Just going to take a little longer.