The Political Economy Of Decentralization In Sub Saharan Africa

For two decades now, experiences in decentralization and federalization have been in progress in many countries, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. How can these processes be understood and improved? Focusing on four Sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal), this volume applies an original approach to address such questions.

Fiscal decentralization is becoming a pressing issue in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting demands for a greater local voice in spending decisions and efforts to strengthen social cohesion. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to distill the lessons for an effective fiscal decentralization reform, focusing on the macroeconomic aspects. The main findings for sub-Saharan African countries that have decentralized, based on an empirical analysis and four case studies (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda), are as follows: • Determinants and effectiveness: Empirical results suggest that (1) the major driving forces behind fiscal decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa include efforts to defuse ethnic conflicts, the initial level of income, and the urban-ization rate, whereas strength of democracy is not an important determi-nant for decentralization; and (2) decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa is associated with higher growth in the presence of stronger institutions. • Spending assignments: The allocation of spending across levels of gov-ernment in the four case studies is broadly consistent with best practice. However, in Uganda, unlike in the other three case studies, subnational governments have little flexibility to make spending decisions as a result of a deconcentrated rather than a devolved system of government. • Own revenue: The assignment of taxing powers is broadly in line with best practice in the four case studies, with the bulk of subnational revenue coming from property taxes and from fees for local services. However, own revenues are a very small fraction of subnational spending, reflecting weak cadaster systems and a high level of informality in the economy.

This is a multidisciplinary book that analyses the problems and issues of development in Africa along with the attempts at, and outcomes of, policy reform measures that have been implemented to surmount those problems. Topics covered include the economic crisis in Africa, urbanisation and urban management, uneven development, the socio-economic context of AIDS, bureaucratic corruption and reform, and proposed development solutions.

African states are often called corrupt, indicating that the political system in Africa differs from the one prevalent in economically advanced democracies. This, however, does not give us any insight into what makes corruption the dominant norm of African statehood. Thus we must turn to the overly neglected theoretical work on the political economy of Africa in order to determine how the poverty of governance in Africa is firmly anchored both in Africa’s domestic socioeconomic reality, as well as in the region’s role in the international economic order. Instead of focusing on increased monitoring, enforcement and formal democratic procedures, this book combines economic analysis with political theory in order to arrive at a better understanding of the political-economic roots of corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The 1990s were marked by democratic reforms throughout Africa, which went in tandem with decentralization reforms. The chapters of the volume all highlight the gradual changes that have taken place since. Long-term structural uncodified factors – be it societal, economic, geographic, demographic – seem to have interacted with the constitutional clauses introduced during the reforms. Some chapters look at how decentralization slowly gave way to recentralization because none of the new subnational entities were politically and economically strong enough to balance off the center; some look at how inherent deficiencies in infrastructure and personnel at the subnational level brought the central government back in; some look at how different subnational units ended up working differently due to differences in demographic and social factors; some look at how uncodified factors came to determine how national politics functioned; some look at how decentralization created new conflicts between ethnic groups competing for the control of the new entities; some look at how decentralization blew new life into traditional authorities. This book was original published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.

Extant research continues to perpetuate a myth of Sub-Saharan African countries (SSACs) as ever stuck in the past and with incurable growth maladies. However, during the years just before the great global recession some of these countries performed better than countries in other regions. What explains this turnaround? How can it be ignited everywhere in the region and made to stick? The Political Economy of Economic Performance is among a few competitors that celebrate the successes of the region and argue for the positive economics of performance of at least some countries. Organized around two themes which are pursued in six chapters, the book provides a comprehensive, balanced, and thorough analysis of the factors and forces behind the unusually good performance of SSACs just before the great global recession, and shows that there is a way forward for them. The book makes a significant contribution to both policy and research, because while its structure is scholarly and logical, with a writing style that is coherent and easily understandable to all interested readers worldwide.

Africa is a fascinating, complex, and infuriating place. This valuable work covers a broad range of topics aiming to make Africa comprehensible to the general reader. Richard A. Fredland based this book on his extensive travels and research in many African countries. The author offers a systematic and integrated portrait of the continent and its peoples through detailed analysis of African history, political systems, social, cultural and economic development, and present-day problems and prospects. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and supplemented with tables and appendices. A Burnham Publishers book

This work goes beyond recent analyses of African development to present a post-dependency framework for the study of Africa's political economy. The author argues that, although the contributions of the modernization and dependency frameworks cannot be ignored, recent economic and political adjustments and realignments require a more penetrating analysis--one that takes into account such factors as the overall growth of the economy, the role of the state, parallel markets, and capitalist development in general. An ideal supplemental text for courses in comparative politics, international political economy, and African development, the volume is comparative in approach and covers the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The author begins by discussing the various dimensions--agricultural, environmental, industrial, population--of Africa's continuing crisis condition. He then closely examines the African development experience since independence and explores the evolution of development theory and its application to Africa. Arguing for a new mode of production approach to the study of Africa's political economy, the author attempts to determine whether Africa is indeed predominantly capitalist and raises questions regarding prevailing theories of capitalist development. Finally, Nyang'oro looks at the state in Africa, pointing to some fundamental weaknesses that contribute to the ongoing crisis and offering a perceptive assessment of development options open to Africa.