Africa, the “dark continent” which was often slated to be on the path of development in the 21st century, has largely remained underdeveloped in every sense of the term due to failure of national governments to effectively implement active developmental measures. Aids from international organizations such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have fallen through due to insipid and corrupt governments. The only bright spot has been Botswana which has been able to achieve sustainable development and economic prosperity maintaining political stability and a good governance.
Political economy can be defined as politics of economic relations between countries. It is widely referred to as the political and economic terms among countries whereby governments’ or polities’ frame national policies along the lines of political and economic considerations. Needless to mention, various economic policies such as fiscal and monetary policies are made keeping in mind political dimensions.
Political economy studies in the context of African or African Political Economy focuses on a wide range of issues from the politics of imperialism, the post independence policy, developmental issues, agrarian economy perspectives, popular and democratic struggles, the socio-economic aspects of class and gender with the rising menace of AIDS and economic crises like external debt plaguing many African countries. Political economy or the International Political Economy (IPE), a marriage between International Relations and Political Economy, as it is widely known today encompasses issues effectively and leads to a comprehensive study of the national and international issues.
African political economy has assumed even more importance today with rising population growth, unemployment, crime rate and urbanization affecting many economies. This decline in the social and economic sphere started way back in the 1970’s and the 1980’s and had continued in the 90’s mainly due to the bad governance problem. Thus many economists label the 1980’s as Africa’s “lost decade.”
The southern African country of Botswana is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa with per capita GDP reaching to $ 11,400 in 2006 measured on a per capita basis. After gaining independence from the British in 1966, the country achieved high growth rates of over 5% with growth rates slightly slowing down to about 4.7% in 2006. As mentioned, progressive economic reforms set the pace of development with diamond mining fuelling most of the change accounting for 70%-80% of the export earnings. But issues such as rising inflation rates and growing unemployment remain the major concerns which were at 11% and 23.5% respectively for the year 2006.
West or Central African countries such as Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Nigeria are still coping up with the changes in the modern globalized economy. The prevalence of armed conflicts in countries such as Senegal and further away in Sudan is claiming many lives and is putting a severe halt to economic development of the nations. The recent incidents of oil supply pipe blasts in the oil-rich nation of Sudan due to ethnic tensions bears testimony to the issue. Further, the issue which is gaining momentum in these regions is the prevalence of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) which is being supplied by the developed nations to fuel tensions in the region.
The east African nations such as Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania have more or less remained stable after 1994. The main exports of the region, such as tea and coffee have recorded increased export earnings over the last decade which has allowed the economies to pick up. However, armed conflicts between ethnicities and races and shortage of arable land and water pose the major problems for the region. In case of Rwanda, where only 8% of the population lives in urban areas and only 3% work in the industrial sector, the country has achieved almost 30% growth land cultivation after the great famine of 1994.
Whereas northern Africa has been characterized by mass migration of skilled labour due to the governments supporting it from the 1970’s as a method to reduce pressure on rising levels of unemployment, countries in the southern region such as Zimbabwe is experiencing mass emigration due to unstable political situation and death of democracy in their home countries. Moroccans are one of the most migrant communities in North Africa with an estimated 1.6 million swelling northern Europe at the end of 1998. South Africa continues to be the most prosperous nation of Africa with improved infrastructural facilities such as industries and highways and a stable government over the last decade restoring investor confidence for the nation. South Africa has also managed to maintain stable growth rates of population and GDP growth rates to the tune of almost 4.5% for 2006.
Studies of the African political economy will only reveal that the African economy, deemed to be showing the way for the global economy in the 21st century, has not witnessed any massive changes over the course of the last decade. Structural problems such as poverty resulting in most of the population living at the subsistence level, rising inflation levels and unemployment with the lack of access to the basic means of living such as food and drinking water are the burning issues for the African polity to deal with. This has meant that most of the schemes under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been unsuccessful. In addition, the menace of high crime rates and the AIDS pandemic in the comparatively richer nations down south is further accentuating the problem.