Abstract
Neo-liberal economics is built upon the claim that the freedom to pursue one’s self-interest and rational choice lead to economic growth and development. Against this background neo-liberal economists and policymakers endeavoured to universalize this claim, and insistently argue that appropriate economic policies produce the same results regardless of cultural values. Accordingly, developing countries are often advised to embrace the neo-liberal economic credo for them to escape from the trap of underdevelopment. However, the economic success of South East Asia on the one hand and the failure of economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa on the other, are increasingly proving that the “economic” argument cannot be taken dogmatically: self-interest and rationality do not seem to be the sufficient explanations for economic development. One other avenue to be taken seriously is the link between cultural values and economic development. After viewing the principle of self-interest against its historico-cultural background, I consider this link in the African context, and argue that, although they cannot be taken as the sole factor, people’s cultural beliefs and values are crucial for economic development. Economic growth and development need to be a substantiation of a people’s beliefs and values. In African value system, this substantiation could lead to what one would call “ubuntu economy" in which the state, the markets and the people are all agents, and not patients, in the process of economic growth and development.
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Notes
- 1.
In his recent publication, the winner of the prestigious Myrdal prize 2008, Erik Reinert (2007: 42–46) has complained about the quantification and the mathematics being the only recognized form of doing economics, and thus, requested for room to bring qualitative analysis back into academic economics.
- 2.
Principle 1: Fiscal discipline;
Principle 2: Concentration of public expenditure on public goods including education, health and infrastructure;
Principle 3: Tax reform toward broadening the tax base with moderate marginal tax rates;
Principle 4: Interest rates to be market determined and positive;
Principle 5: Competitive exchange rates;
Principle 6: Trade liberalization;
Principle 7: Openness to foreign direct investment;
Principle 8: Privatization of state enterprises;
Principle 9: Deregulation – abolishment of regulations that impede entry or restrict competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental, and consumer protection grounds, and prudential oversight of financial institutions;
Principle 10: Legal security for property rights.
- 3.
For instance, in his Cultural Factors and Economic Performance in East Asia and Latin America, Jiang Shixue (2008) argues that “each culture has its own unique positive and negative components, but the positive ones cannot automatically create better economic performance in the absence of other necessary conditions like sound economic policies, effective institutions, favourable world economic situations, the right timing of a nation’s entry into industrialisation, and political stability.”
- 4.
Does Africa need a cultural adjustment program (my translation).
- 5.
This point could be deepened especially when dealing with the concept of time in the African context. For instance, John Mbiti (1970) argues that in traditional Africa, there are only two aspects of time: the present (sasa) and the past (Zamani). The consequence of this conception of time would lead one to believe that planning for the future is rather speculative. If this were the case, then it would be difficult to talk of planning of economic development (Nyang, 1994). However Mbiti was obviously mistaken since in all Bantu languages there is the future tense as well. And the akamba culture of which Mbiti is part is not an exception. Yet it may be possible that what Mbiti might have had in mind is that the past, the present and the future merge in the same way as the individual is ontologically part of the community in the African conception of the human being. If this was the case, is it not the prospective nature of economic development that would be endangered along with the meaning that people derive from the future (Diagne, 2004)?
- 6.
For a more extended reflection on the point, one could refer to my article “Le miracle asiatique”: qu’apprendre de l’expérience asiatique du développement (The Asian miracle: what can be learned from the Asian experience of development), in Ethique et Société, 2006, 3 (1): 18–34.
- 7.
Kagame collected data on 180 languages from the Bantu zone, read 300 books on the various Bantu.
- 8.
Kagame claimed that these four categories correspond to the ten Aristotelian categories (one substance and nine accidents). However, his biographer, Kagabo (2006: 236), questioned this claim arguing that Aristotelian categories are classes of predicates while Kagame’s categories are classes of beings. However, this is not to say that Kagame is wrong since as far as the Bantu languages are concerned, Kagame is right to stress that any conceivable entity comes down to one of those four and there is no entity outside those four categories (Kagame cited by Kagabo, ibid.).
- 9.
According to Ramose (1999: 41, see also Mkhize, 2008: 41) ubuntu has two particles, the prefix ubu and the stem ntu. But actually there three particles: u which is an article, bu which denotes the abstract. For instance the Bantu would refer to the dog-ness of a dog as u-bu-bwa, the animality of an animal as u-bu-koko. When bu is combined with the stem –ntu, it means the humanness or humanity.
- 10.
I am also using the word “intelligent” to mean “comprehensive rationality” that allows people to transcend calculations geared to substantiating their personal interests rather than harmony in the universe.
- 11.
This saying is also found in other languages such as Sesotho (Motho ke motho ka batho), in Kirundi and Kinyarwanda (Umuntu ni umuntu mu Bantu).
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Acknowledgements
I thank the Philosophical Society of South Africa (PSSA) and the International Society of Business, Ethics, and Economics (ISBEE) for organising forums from which this chapter benefited valuable comments and suggestions. I express my sincere gratitude to my Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Deon Rossouw from the University of Pretoria, and Prof. Georges Enderle from the University of Notre Dame, USA for their accompaniment on my ongoing research of the link between values and economic development. The chapter has benefited a lot from the comments and suggestions of reviewers. I appreciate very much their enlightenment and help. The friendly insights and kind encouragement of Prof. John Mittelstaedt from Clemson University, USA, on a research visit at the University of Notre Dame, are greatly appreciated. Certain sections have been added to the original text while I was on Robert S. McNamara- World Bank fellowship, at the University of Notre Dame. I am grateful to World Bank for this opportunity.
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Ntibagirirwa, S. (2010). Cultural Values, Economic Growth and Development. In: Moore, G. (eds) Fairness in International Trade. The International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics Book Series, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8840-6_3
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