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Economic Policies

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African Politics

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Abstract

Just as in the case of foreign policy, the ideologies proclaimed tell us nothing of the real orientation of African economies. At the most they provide a clue which must be filled out by trying to specify the general tendencies which emerge from the facts. In broad outline, we may say that in the majority of cases there is a ‘development of underdevelopment’, in the case of both capitalist African States and those which claim to follow an African road to socialism. Only a few States have tried to follow a non-capitalist or anti-capitalist road to development designed to enable them to emerge from underdevelopment (see 136 above). But for various reasons they have encountered a number of difficulties which make this road to development risky and uncertain. As for those States which claim kinship with marxism-leninism, the experience of the Congo, which is the one which dates back longest, is scarcely convincing; and that of other States is still too recent to enable a balance sheet to be established.

This aspect of African policies cannot be dissociated from international relations (see above). Foreign policy and domestic policy are intimately linked. See T.M. Shaw and K.A. Heard: The Politics of Africa: Dependence and Development, op.cit.

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Notes

  1. Regarding this problem as a whole, see the various studies published in the joint work: The Political Economy of Contemporary Africa, Sage, London, 1977 (a bibliographical guide containing 355 references, compiled by Chris Allen). Also useful for the study of the problem of social classes.

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  3. Between 1950 and 1970, the African population living in the Ivory Coast increased by 3.9% annually on the average.

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  34. We find a reflection of this situation in the works of Congolese poets and writers; see the analysis by M. Eliou, op.cit., pp.81 et seq.

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Authors
  1. Pierre François Gonidec
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© 1981 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague

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Gonidec, P.F. (1981). Economic Policies. In: African Politics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8902-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8902-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-247-2391-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8902-3

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