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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:In quest of regional integration in Africa: can the AU/NEPAD reconcile economic plurilateralism with developmental regionalism?
Author:Ndayi, ZolekaISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:International Journal of African Renaissance Studies (ISSN 1818-6874)
Volume:6
Issue:1
Pages:78-93
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:NEPAD
economic development
regionalism
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18186874.2011.592394
Abstract:While the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) strives for both plurilateralism and regionalism, there are ideological and practical conditions that challenge the feasibility of a fully fledged regional integration institution in Africa. This article examines the NEPAD in relation to Africa's ideological back-loading, while it explores how the programme reconciles Western-dominated economic plurilateralism with Africa's developmental regionalism. It highlights the ideological changes that helped with the modernization of Western countries and how these developments become a challenge to Africa's economic development efforts. Africa has always been an ideological back-loader and a delayed integrator into global interdependence. During the mid-20th century, at the time Western countries were adopting regionalism, Africa was engaged in the same phenomenon for political and economic independence. While the economic crisis of the mid-20th century following the Second World War enabled the industrialized countries to adopt embedded liberalism for socioeconomic development, at decolonization Africa sought to espouse what turned out to be the dependency paradigm as the economic development strategy for Africa. In the 21st century, developed regions are transcending regionalism and gearing towards plurilateralism while most African leaders remain fixated in traditional regional integration on the continent. As the neoliberal ideology dominates the contemporary international political economy of the 21st century, albeit questionably, Africa's politico-socioeconomic realities are also premised on the same embedded liberalism. However, economic plurilateralism by industrialized countries with Africa challenges efforts towards regional integration on the continent. It would seem that the NEPAD provides a viable compromise between developmental regionalism and economic plurilateralism. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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