Abstract
The modernization theory and radical political economy perspectives (dependency theory and dependent development perspectives) have occupied a unique position in explaining Africa’s socio-economic crises. However, I utilized the radical political economy perspectives and new public management theory to provide an understanding of Nigeria’s development dilemma. The modernization school had adopted a prescriptive and evolutionary analysis to tackle the economic crises of developing countries like Nigeria. In sharp contrast, dependency theory adopted a political economy approach to analyze the underdevelopment of the periphery. Dependent development theory dismissed liberalism and redefined the role of states and the transformation of public institutions into management bodies, while the new public management theory addressed the quest for a policy shift in the oil sector under a management-oriented Nigerian bureaucracy.
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- 1.
According to Rodney (1973, p. 19), “imperialism was in effect the extended capitalist system, which for many years embraced the whole world—one part being the exploiters and the other the exploited, one part being dominated and the other acting as overlords, one part making policy and the other being dependent.”
- 2.
He means the process in which major clusters of old social, economic, and psychological commitments are eroded or broken and people become available for new patterns of socialization and behaviour.
- 3.
Nigeria, like other developing countries, has been condemned by proponents of modernization theory for operating a “large government” which is in contradiction to the “limited government” proposed by the liberals. Accordingly, the state reduces the role of the government to that of guaranteeing of law and order, and the provision of an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
- 4.
This a strategy designed by states to produce, mobilize and allocate resources to sustain armed conflict in the event of civil war or inter-state war.
- 5.
Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye was a former Head of the Civil Service of the Nigerian Federation.
- 6.
Political culture describes the attitudes, perspectives, values and orientations of citizens of a particular society towards the political system.
- 7.
In 2014, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Britain recorded an increase of 0.70 percent in the third quarter of 2014. For more information, see http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth
- 8.
An administrative state should have the following characteristics: a workable organization in the classical hierarchic sense; the recruitment of expertise by merit; rational decision making; the rule of law, with an emphasis on equality before the law; written procedures and records; not only a money economy but sufficient public funds to support a complex administrative apparatus; a solid base in quantitative data and technique; adequate supporting technology, especially pertaining to records, communications, and numeracy; the enforcement of responsibility and ethical standards; and all the above requirements in at least a moderately developed and mutually supporting organization.
- 9.
There have been a handful of reforms , but none has actually transformed the Nigeria’s public service to conform to the demands of globalization and pressure of democratization .
- 10.
For instance, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) has been fully privatized and its name changed to Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria (PHCN).
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Akinola, A.O. (2018). The Quest for Development: Theoretical Discourse. In: Globalization, Democracy and Oil Sector Reform in Nigeria. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70184-4_4
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