International Political Economy and African Economic Development: A Survey of Issues and Research Agenda

The challenges of African Economic development feature prominently on the agenda of the international political economy (IPE). Adopting a political economy prism, this paper examines the literature and traces the policies and debates about Africa in three key areas: macroeconomic policy, financing for development and international trade. The review shows a continuing African subservience within the IPE even as the importance of ‘ownership’ is becoming increasingly recognised. Ownership is subverted by the dominance in Africa's internal policy debate of its external partners and also by the likelihood that overall development financing will continue to be heavily dependent on the national security interests of Africa's major external partners. The macroeconomic and trade policy frameworks within which Africa functions reflect its existential condition of subservience in the IPE. The prevailing orthodoxy has proved to be remarkably persistent over the last 25 years, so much as to have become internalised by African leadership even as it continues to propagate the ownership myth. The paper suggests a research agenda around four issues: the links between institutional dynamics and economic policy; the challenges of building a new comparative advantage; the modalities for effectively managing a windfall in the form of aid, and the importance of harnessing non-aid resources.