Africa’s Persistent Struggles for Development and Democracy in a Multipolar World

Abstract

I would like to begin by thanking the Vice Chancellor, Dean of the Faculty of Business Studies, and other leaders of the University of Dhaka for inviting me to this conference, and my good friend and former colleague at Quinnipiac University, Professor Mohammad Elahee, for gently persuading me to come to this lovely country and city for the first time. Please allow me to make two analytical caveats at the outset. First, Africa is a vast continent whose 54 countries have varied historical geographies, political economies, and sociocultural ecologies. Consequently, it is not easy, indeed it may be foolhardy to make generalizations about the state and trajectories of democracy and development across this exceedingly diverse and complex continent. Second, ever since the emergence of the modern world system more than half a millennium ago, developments within Africa have always been connected to and affected by global dynamics and forces. This local-global nexus has engendered transboundary formations that are complex, contradictory, and always changing, thereby complicating analyses of phenomena and processes within the continent. As the title states, in this presentation I will do three things. First, explore the dynamics of economic growth and development in Africa. Second, examine the trajectories of democracy across the continent. Finally, analyze the intersections of African developmental and democratic transformations and transitions within the changing global order and political economy. I argue that, as in much of the world, notwithstanding advances in recent years the continent has been experiencing recessions of both development and democracy, although there are notable variations among countries. While the ghosts of Afro-pessimism of the 1980s and 1990s occasionally peep into discourses of contemporary Africa, the “Africa Rising/Rising Africa” narrative of the early 2010s retains its seductions. But it has loss some of its gloss to a more sobering appreciation of the challenges of constructing integrated, inclusive, and innovative democratic developmental states and societies. Thus, while African economies generally continue to grow the yawning gap between growth and development, which we learned from dependency theory in the 1970s, persists. In short, the scale and durability of Africa’s growth and its translation into sustainable development remain questionable. Despite almost two decades of economic growth widespread poverty persists, inequality is deepening, and the crisis of employment for Africa’s exploding youth populations perseveres. Similarly pressing are the enduring democratic deficits despite notable improvements in governance. The apparent recessions of inclusive development and democracy are of course not confined to Africa. Many parts of the world are witnessing similar challenges, another indication of how deeply imbricated the continent is in global affairs.