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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Between Governance and Underdevelopment: Accumulation and Africa's 'Catastrophic Corruption'
Author:Szeftel, MorrisISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:27
Issue:84
Period:June
Pages:287-306
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:corruption
underdevelopment
development cooperation
Politics and Government
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Development and Technology
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240008704460
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=44DEBF0FDD688EC2A288
Abstract:This paper explores aspects of the tensions between, on the one hand, international efforts by multilateral and bilateral creditors and aid donors to reduce corruption in developing countries and, on the other, the role played by political corruption in promoting local accumulation of wealth, property and capital in Africa. The weak bargaining position of African States, where debt and underdevelopment make dependence on international creditors and aid donors especially acute, has led to a variety of direct, unsubtle pressures to force these States to undertake 'governance' reforms. While many of these measures address important problems undermining African development, they also misunderstand the nature of corruption as an African problem in two ways. First, they seek to impose rules and norms of proper public behaviour, developed for and with liberal democracies, in environments where liberal democracy is not established. Second, they threaten the dependence of the African petty bourgeoisie on access to the State and its resources. In the context of underdevelopment, local accumulation rests on political power and the ability it provides to appropriate public resources. The nature of underdevelopment makes capital accumulation in the marketplace hazardous and relatively unrewarding. The irony of the donor reform programme is that, in setting out to guarantee the conditions for capitalist accumulation and liberal democracy, it has produced increased pressures for corruption. Bibliogr., notes, sum.
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