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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Economic Liberalization in Senegal: Shifting Politics of Indigenous Business Interests
Authors:Thioub, IbrahimaISNI
Diop, Momar-CoumbaISNI
Boone, CatherineISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:African Studies Review
Volume:41
Issue:2
Period:September
Pages:63-89
Language:English
Geographic term:Senegal
Subjects:informal sector
private enterprises
Economics and Trade
Politics and Government
international relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/524827
Abstract:Analysts of African business in the 1960s and 1970s invariably stressed the weakness of the local private sector and its subordination to foreign capital and the State. This article examines changes in the relations between the State, foreign capital and indigenous business as a result of economic liberalization in the 1980s, focusing on the case of Senegal. In Senegal, there has been a shift of commercial control away from the State and foreign interests toward the 'informal sector' and clear moves away from the old pattern of clientelist-style relations between Senegalese traders and the regime. The article assesses the significance of these changes. In particular, it examines the changing character and fortunes of the formal associations that have carried the banners of business sector interests since the 1960s. The analysis of the 1990s is grounded in a detailed empirical study of Unacois (Union nationale des commerçants et industriels du Sénégal), a business association that emerged in Dakar in 1990 to represent the Senegalese 'informal sector'. This organization has some political clout and some autonomous room for manoeuvre in its dealings with the regime. At the same time, the political clout of Senegalese businessmen is still limited by their weak hold on productive sectors of the economy. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.
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