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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Dependency Theory and the Political Economy of Africa's Crisis
Author:Bienefeld, Manfred A.ISNI
Year:1988
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:15
Issue:43
Pages:68-87
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:economic theories
economic recession
Economics and Trade
Politics and Government
international relations
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056248808703791
Abstract:The World Bank's major reviews of the African crisis are entirely in agreement with the view that the chief cause of Africa's problems lies in the 'market distortions' that have been generated by internal political forces using State policies to serve their own short-term interest. In the first part the article describes the three main pillars on which this 'new orthodoxy' rests: theoretical assertions drawn from a resurgent neoclassical theory and relying heavily on the static theory of comparative advantage; historical/empirical evidence drawn from the global development debate, and summarized in the alleged 'lessons' to be learned from the 'Newly Industrializing Countries' (NICs); and detailed African evidence relating to specific projects and sectors. The second part deals with the radical left's view of the crisis and describes two main positions: the 'Chicago Marxism' of Bill Warren (1982) and the 'peasantism' of Gavin Williams (1976). Ironically, these two positions share most of the central conclusions of the neoclassical orthodoxy, draw on the same evidence, and even share some of the same assumptions and contradictions. Bibliogr.
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