Controlling Corruption in Africa: a Public Choice Perspective

Abstract

When independence came, many of the new African countries were faced with two important policy problems: the determination of (a) a political system, and (b) a development model. Between the early 1960s (when many colonies in Africa began to gain independence) and the late 1980s, civilian and military dictatorships dominated Africa’s political systems. In the small number of African countries that were able to maintain some degree of ‘liberties, they were fragile, vulnerable, and under constant threat of sudden death; where despotism prevailed, it was cruel, murderous, and incompetent’ (Fatton, 1990: 459). Most of the new leaders failed to engage the people in reconstruction of the neocolonial state, and thus did not provide effective structures for popular participation. Many people were subsequently forced out of political and economic participation. However, public resources were devoted to the development of structures to help the ruling elite plunder the economy for its own benefit and that of its supporters. As a result, institutions of state coercion such as the military and the police were strengthened.