The elusive prince of Denmark : structural adjustment and the crisis of governance in Africa

There has recently emerged a growing concern among scholars and policy makers to elaborate a connection between structural adjustment and governance in the Third World, due to a desire for market-driven economic reform in the adjusting countries. The governance is presented as the missing link for these economic reforms. This report challenges the intellectual premises of the governance project of the Bretton Woods twins in Africa. It argues that in the way in which it has been articulated, the World Bank/IMF governance reform agenda can hardly be expected to lay an enduring basis for a system of democratic governance in Africa. Nor can it be expected to create a framework for non-repressive economic reforms

Democratic Governance and Accountability in Africa : In Search of a Workable Framework

This Discussion Paper provides a thought-provoking and radical intervention into the ongoing debates on democratic governance and accountability in Africa. The author undertakes a critical overview of the discourse on democratisation in Africa and notes that democracy on the continent cannot be fully understood on the basis of the ways in which electoral pluralism has played out in the last 20 years. The paper critiques mainstream explanations and points out their shortcomings. It goes on to make a compelling case for an alternative framework based on historically informed dialectical analysis of everyday democracy and struggles for democracy in Africa. Noting that no two democracies are exactly the same, the paper advocates the need for democracy in Africa to be studied on its own terms, and in a way that facilitates taking the African experience into the global arena to produce a truly comparative theory of democratisation on a world scale. The paper is essential reading for all those interested in the history, present and future of democracy in Africa

Economy and Politics in the Nigerian Transition

This essay is an attemp to offer a general overview of the range of polititcal and economic problems that served as the context for the transition to elected forms of governance in Nigeria after some sixteen years of military rule. These problems, even where they did not originate in military rule, were exacerbated by the years of political exclusion, chicanery, and represion as well as the continuing decline in the national economy and deep-seated corruption associated with prolonged military rule. It is suggested that a serious-minded effort at tackling these problems and the kinds of succcess recorded will be central to the vialibility of the Fourth Republic and the restauration of the confidence of the populace in pubic office holders. Several of the problems that need redressing are of "nuts and bolts" kind and the fact that they arose at all is indicative of the depth to which Nigeria sank durting the military years; others are far more profound and challenge the very basis on which state-society relations as well as nation-territorial administration are presently constituted. Whether basic or profound, they will tax all the commitment and leadership qualities of the elected politicians of the Fourth Republic. (A. J. of Political Science: 2001 5(2): 5-29

Structural adjustment and socio-economic change in Sub-Saharan Africa : some conceptual, methodological and research issues

The African-based authors of this volume provide a series of objective, detailed, factually up-to-date, and theoretically informed studies of reent developments in agriculture, the informal sector, the social sector and 'civil society' in Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. They analyse the main trends and forces operating in these fields and consider the economic reform programme's impact against this background.Contents: Structural Adjustment and Structural Change in Sub-Saharan Africa : Some Provisional Conclusion / Peter Gibbon -- Extending the Frontiers of Structural Adjustment Research in Africa : Some Notes on the Objectives of Phase 2 of the NAI Research Programme / Adebayo O. Olukoshi </p