Rent Seeking Institutions And Reforms In Africa

This volume identifies rent-seeking behavior as a primary cause of poor economic performance in many places, particulary Africa. The book presents a detailed empirical study of rent-seeking within the civil service, parastatal sector, and business community in Tanzania. It quantifies and evaluates the rent-seeking behavior of more than 300 parastatal companies and the resulting impact on society. The conclusions on reform strategies are applicable to counties within and outside Africa.

Uses the public choice theory to explain why Africa failed in its post-independence development effort and to examine institutional reform.

A significant contribution to the debate on poverty alleviation in Africa, Professor Mbaku offers practical policies for economic growth. He argues that the most important contributor to poverty and deprivation in Africa is the absense of institutional structures that enhance indigenous entrepreneurship and wealth creation. He explains that these are so vital that living standards will continue to deteriorate unless these building blocks are put in place.

Provides an analysis of strategies for poverty alleviation, sustainable development and peaceful coexistence. Emphasizes the importance of institutions, as well as sound public policies to sustainable economic growth in Africa. Highlights the significance of institutional reforms as part of an effective poverty alleviation programme and identifies key challenges facing Africa such as HIV/AIDS and iproving competitiveness.

A study of the economic experience of 22 African countries. The author argues that rent-seeking (payment made to a resource beyond what is necessary to get the resource to perform its function) and policies that encourage rent-seeking have played a major role in hindering economic growth.

There is not a single African country that did not attempt public sector reforms in the 1990s. Governments no longer see themselves as sole suppliers of social services, frequently opting for partnerships with the private sector. Efficiency and choice have entered the language of the planning and implementation units of Africa's line ministries, while privatization is no longer the controversial subject it was a decade ago. There have also been moves towards more open and democratic governments. Reforming Africa's Institutions looks at the extent to which reforms undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years have enhanced institutional capacities across the breadth of government. To what extent have reforms been internalized and defended by governments? The authors also look specifically at the impact of public sector reforms on these economies and pose the question whether 'ownership can be attained when countries continue to be heavily dependent on external support. The volume is presented in three parts. The first focuses on the issue of reform ownership; on the issues of governance, the political economy of reform ownership, and the contradictions inherent in using aid as an instrument for enhancing domestic reform ownership. Part two examines the nature of incentives in the African civil service and the reforms undertaken in recent years to raise public sector efficiency in Africa. The third part discusses issues related to institutional capabilities in Africa and how they have been affected by the reforms undertaken in the 1990s, including privatization and movement towards political pluralism.

This study contains a mixture of analytical ideas and views, and recommends reconstruction of the neo-colonial state as an effective way to deal with this pervasive institution. It examines corruption from a public choice perspective, and part of the book deals specifically with Nigeria.

Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa is a research-based volume that collates and interprets lessons that South Africa should take to heart in managing interparty coalitions. It draws from domestic experiences as well as from case studies on the rest of the African continent and generic instances further afield. Coalitions in various iterations have been a part of the South African polity since the attainment of democracy in 1994. This started, nationally, with a 'grand coalition' in the form of a Government of National Unity as mandated in the interim constitution. Coalitions have also found expression in some of the country's provinces. After the transition, multiparty governments were sustained at national and provincial levels either as a matter of necessity due to election outcomes or for other political considerations. At local government level, coalitions have been relatively commonplace in South Africa from the onset of democratically elected municipalities in 2000, with many situations where no single party attained an absolute majority. This gained prominence from 2016 when many metropolitan governments and some large towns became sites of coalition politics.