Economic restructuring and African Public Administration issues, actions and future choices. Edited by M. Jide Balogun and Gelase Mutahaba. African Association for Public Administration and Management, Kumarian Press, Connecticut, 1989, 246 pp.
| Author | Edward Horesh |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130208 |
| Date | 01 May 1993 |
| Published date | 01 May 1993 |
Book
Reviews
173
in development to its credit in recent years and which in a number of respects contrasts
favourably with many countries in the developed world.
RICHARD A. CHAPMAN
University
of
Durham
ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND AFRICAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
ISSUES, ACTIONS AND FUTURE CHOICES
Edited by M. Jide Balogun and Gelase Mutahaba
African Association for Public Administration and Management, Kumarian Press, Connecti-
cut, 1989,246 pp.
AFRICAN ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORK TO STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PRO-
GRAMMES FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND TRANSFORMATION (AAF-
SAP)
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, New York, 1989,60 pp.
Despite its promise, the title of the first of these books is a misnomer for whilst the responses
to structural adjustment conditionalities are addressed, very little is written about policy formu-
lation or implementation. This is a pity for if its substance had measured up to its promise,
the book would have provided a very useful complement to the proposals issued by the
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) intended to loosen the grip of IMF and World
Bank conditionalities. Both books start from the premise that these are too tight and doctri-
naire, though this is agreement on the need for drastic policy change. Indeed, the ECA’s
preference for the use of ‘transformation’ rather than ‘adjustment’ is an indication of its
belief that the World Bank/IMF formulae are too restrictive in scope-that while there is
some place for a greater market orientation (e.g. curtailment of the public sector, removal
of subsidies, non-intervention in the foreign exchange and capital markets) within the African
structure, there is a need for greater pragmatism and concern for the particular contingencies
of each country. The orthodox measures of adjustment, the ECA argues, in my view correctly,
should be considered in the context of
a
more holistic approach to development policy, the
primary objective of which should be the alleviation of mass poverty-only attainable ‘if
pursued in tandem with the objective
of
attaining self-sustained development’, which, in turn,
encompasses sustained economic growth, socioeconomic structural transformation and
a
‘sus-
taining’ resource base. In place of the orthodoxies
of
monetarism and market efficiency,
the ECA offers a Keynesian/structuralist model based on
a
circular flow of production, distribu-
tion and expenditure relations. Thus policies embrace land reform as well as interventions
in other markets and, all importantly, human resource development. Thus the IMF and World
Bank short- and
medium-term preoccupations
are seen as impediments to longer term progress,
even though some of their remedies may have more
or
less limited value. The ECA also
sees a future in international co-operation within Africa-industrial location and, more import-
ant, co-operative research and development. If the national polices appear ambitious, intra-
continental co-operation seems unattainable in the present political climate. The authors of
the ECA report recognize that successful implementation requires ‘wide-ranging changes in
the democratisation of society within the social and economic framework as well as in develop-
ment strategies and policies. The political systems will need to evolve to allow for full democracy
and participation by all sections of the society.’ Understandably, they do not offer a political
model to accompany their economic model.
The impractibility of the ECA programme lies in the politics rather than the economics
of Africa. When these volumes were published, the possibility of the so-called ‘donor com-
munity’ providing finance for its support was remote. Since the publication of the 1990 World
Development Report on Poverty, the donor community posture has become more flexible,
though deeds have not been as forthcoming as words. However, it is not at all evident that
the African political classes are ready to embrace adjustment, let alone transformation. When
structural adjustment policies fail, the reasons seem to lie as much in the lack of commitment
of the government (politicians and bureaucrats) as in the flaws of the policies themselves.
The relationship between administrators, politicians and their policies
is
surely a key issue
in any discussion of ‘economic restructuring’ but this is discussed nowhere in Balogun and
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