This book explores the ways in which political settlements can contribute to positive changes in Africa’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Contemporary Africa has seen many governments, donors, and commercial private enterprises supporting innovative agricultural and agroprocessing schemes with the purpose of diversifying economies. However, many of the schemes collapse or at best fail to generate the needed jobs. Focusing on case studies in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines economic analysis, life histories, policy approaches methods, and political economy theory to reframe the field with new questions. The contributors offer alternative explanations for the failure of employment creation schemes in Africa and show how political settlements can bring together stakeholders to settle on win–win approaches to productive employment schemes and inclusive development. Providing new insights on the political economy of agrarian and labour relations in Africa, this book will be of interest to policy actors and development practitioners wishing to support inclusive growth in Africa, as well as to scholars of African politics and economics, public policy, and development.

Smuggling is typically thought of as furtive and hidden, taking place under the radar and beyond the reach of the state. But in many cases, governments tacitly permit illicit cross-border commerce, or even devise informal arrangements to regulate it. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the borderlands of Tunisia and Morocco, Max Gallien explains why states have long tolerated illegal trade across their borders and develops new ways to understand the political economy of smuggling. This book examines the rules and agreements that govern smuggling in North Africa, tracing the involvement of states in these practices and their consequences for borderland communities. Gallien demonstrates that, contrary to common assumptions about the effects of informal economies, smuggling can promote both state and social stability. States not only turn a blind eye to smuggling, they rely on it to secure political acquiescence and maintain order, because it provides income for otherwise neglected border communities. More recently, however, the securitization of borders, wars, political change, and the pandemic have put these arrangements under pressure. Gallien explores the renegotiation of the role of smuggling, showing how stability turns into vulnerability and why some groups have been able to thrive while others have been pushed further to the margins. With both rich empirical detail and novel theoretical contributions, Smugglers and States offers important insights into security and stability in North Africa and the prospects for economic inclusion in a context where many livelihoods exist outside of the law.

Majority State Ownership of Oil and Mining Sectors in Africa: The Resource Curse Undermined shows that countries in sub-Saharan Africa with majority state ownership of their major oil or mineral export sectors suffered from more severe versions of the natural resource curse than other similar countries. Examining natural resource exporting nations in sub-Saharan Africa between 1966 to 2000, Quinn shows that on average, states with majority state ownership of these sectors featured lower growth, lower incomes, declining alternative export sectors, more debt, lower levels of investment, lower levels of political and civil rights, and more domestic conflict than other similar countries. These results remained fairly consistent across both cross-country data, as well as in paired case studies. One surprise finding is that these countries either had depreciating currencies, or did not feature high levels of currency appreciation, on average, which is inconsistent with resource curse literature predictions. Rather, most countries with majority state ownership had high levels of currency overvaluation – which operated in a similar manner as currency appreciation. This work should appeal to students and faculty interested in the political economy of development, the natural resource curse, and African development, as well as politicians, policy makers, and NGO workers working in these areas. The strong recommendation of the book is that governments should control 50% or less of these sectors.

This volume reflects on the recent political developments in Zimbabwe and their current and future impact on the agrarian sector. Utilising new empirical data gathered across Zimbabwe, the contributors shed light on the liberalisation of agricultural policy after Mugabe. Chapters examine how the adoption of neo-liberal orthodoxy in agrarian policy making will affect the new agrarian structure, looking at issues such as productivity, the impact on vulnerable groups, changing land tenure arrangements, joint ventures and land grabbing. Providing a new way of conceptualising Zimbabwe’s agrarian futures, this book will be of interest to researchers, NGOs and policymakers interested in the politics of land and agriculture in Zimbabwe and southern Africa.

Using Ghana as a case study, this work integrates economic and political analysis to explore the challenges and opportunities of Africa's growth and transformation.

International observers have lauded Rwanda as an example of an African country taking control of its own development trajectory, and as a market-friendly destination for investment. A key component of this narrative has been an ambitious programme of agricultural reform, involving private firms, NGOs, and international charities. The Rwandan government claims these reforms have been a resounding success, tripling crop yields and helping to combat hunger. Chris Huggins argues, however, that Rwanda's liberal, modernising image sits poorly with the regime's continuing authoritarian tendencies. Featuring in-depth case studies of the effects of agricultural reform in three different regions, and drawing on hundreds of interviews, Huggins shows that the much-vaunted 'liberalization' of agriculture has in fact depended on the coercion of Rwandan farmers, and in many cases has had a detrimental impact on their livelihoods. With the Kagame regime now coming under increasing international scrutiny, this work provides a timely look at the impact of 'market friendly authoritarianism' in contemporary Africa, making essential reading for students and scholars of development in the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics.

Taking South Africa as an important case study of the challenges of structural transformation, the book offers a new micro-meso level framework and evidence linking country-specific and global dynamics of change, with a focus on the current challenges and opportunities faced by middle-income countries.

This book takes the reader through the expansion, restructuring and possible salvation of Malawi’s main industry, tobacco. Malawi has been dependent on tobacco exports for a century, but now, with demand for Malawian tobacco declining fast, the country needs to diversify rapidly. The authors combine an innovative range of theory and methods to provide a comprehensive and incisive analysis of the dilemmas faced by countries which still rely on a limited number of agricultural commodities in the 21st century. This work will be ideal for scholars and researchers interested in political economy and African development.

Industrial policy has long been regarded as a strategy to encourage sector-, industry-, or economy-wide development by the state. It has been central to competitiveness, catching up, and structural change in both advanced and developing countries. It has also been one of the most contested perspectives, reflecting ideologically inflected debates and shifts in prevailing ideas. There has lately been a renewed interest in industrial policy in academic circles and international policy dialogues, prompted by the weak outcomes of policies pursued by many developing countries under the direction of the Washington Consensus (and its descendants), the slow economic recovery of many advanced economies after the 2008 global financial crisis, and mounting anxieties about the national consequences of globalization. The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Policy presents a comprehensive review of and a novel approach to the conceptual and theoretical foundations of industrial policy. The Handbook also presents analytical perspectives on how industrial policy connects to broader issues of development strategy, macro-economic policies, infrastructure development, human capital, and political economy. By combining historical and theoretical perspectives, and integrating conceptual issues with empirical evidence drawn from advanced, emerging, and developing countries, The Handbook offers valuable lessons and policy insights to policymakers, practitioners and researchers on developing productive transformation, technological capabilities, and international competitiveness. It addresses pressing issues including climate change, the gendered dimensions of industrial policy, global governance, and technical change. Written by leading international thinkers on the subject, the volume pulls together different perspectives and schools of thought from neo-classical to structuralist development economists to discuss and highlight the adaptation of industrial policy in an ever-changing socio-economic and political landscape.

The Middle East captured front pages worldwide for the alleged Arab Spring in 2011. Large segments of the populations of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria took to the streets to voice their protest against autocratic regimes and to demand democracy. Violent uprisings followed, but the prospects of liberal democracy are still uncertain and distant. No wonder. Democratization took a couple of centuries in the West. And even today, well-established Western democracies are under pressure from globalization and regionalization, and many claim representative democracy is in need of renewal. This collection of essays focuses on a number of theoretical issues associated with democracy and democratization. Divided into three parts, the first part analyzes how democracy may be understood, explained and measured. The second part deals with issues of democracy, international stability, and development in fragile and developmental states and regions. The third part of the book looks at representative democracy in old democracies and its potential for development.