Abstract
In his book Ideology and Development in Africa (1982), Crawford Young argues that in two decades of independence, African political economies have become widely differentiated along two axes, one defined by ideology and the other by performance. Though, as he points out, there are difficulties in evaluating regime performance and in relating performance to ideological preference, his own book shows the attempt to be worthwhile. He concludes firstly that ideology does matter — it is not merely froth on the African beer, paling to insignificance beside the almost universal dependence of African states on the Western-dominated international economy; and secondly, that it has some bearing on performance.
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Further Reading
Geertz, C, ‘Ideology as a Cultural System’, in Apter, D. E. (ed.), Ideology and Discontent (New York: The Free Press, 1964).
IDS Sussex Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 2 (April 1981) — ‘Britain on Brandt’. International Journal, vol. xxxv (Autumn 1980): special issue on ‘Africa’s Prospects’.
Kirkpatrick, C, and Nixson, F., ‘Transnational Corporations and Economic Development’, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 19, no. 3 (September 1981).
Legum, C, et al., Africa in the 1980s: A Continent in Crisis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979).
Leys, C., ‘African Economic Development in Theory and Practice’, Dadalus, vol. III, no. 2 (Spring 1982).
Lofchie, M. F. (ed.), The State of the Nations: Constraints on Development in Independent Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971).
North-South: A Programme for Survival, and Common Crisis — Reports of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues under the Chairmanship of Willy Brandt (London: Pan Books, 1980, 1983).
Rosberg, C. G., and Callaghy, T. M. (eds.), Socialism in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Assessment (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1979).
Rothchild, D., and Curry, R. L., Jr., Scarcity, Choice and Public Policy in Middle Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
Sklar, R. L., Democracy in Africa – presidential address to the 25th annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Washington D.C., 5 November 1982 (Los Angeles: African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles).
Young, C, Ideology and Development in Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).
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© 1984 William Tordoff
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Tordoff, W. (1984). Conclusions: Ideology, the Post-Colonial State and Development. In: Government and Politics in Africa. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17629-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17629-8_10
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