Abstract:
Continuing in the Social Entrepreneurship series, what roles and responsibilities do corporations, non-profits/NGOs, donors, and investors play in society? Professor Paul Hudnut at Colorado State University ponders such questions in his research. Do the four pillars, corporations, NGOs, donors, and investors, play different functions in the global economy, East African economy, or right here in our Kenyan economy? Moving deeper, what role do the pillars play in international development, social enterprise ecosystem, and in your own business venture? The 19th century saw a radical shift in global political economies. The world began implementing the earlier views of Scottish economist Adam Smith’s 1776 The Wealth of Nations that, among other ideas, countries gain power through competition and mutual trade rather than the acquisition and hording of gold and precious stones. The 20th century saw the struggle between two dramatically different economic schools of thought: communism and capitalism. By the end of the century, Marxist communism proved ineffective and Keynesian capitalism versus Classical Economic capitalism ruled from lecture halls to central bank offices, and right here in Kenya. As the 21st century commenced, from 2002, former President Mwai Kibaki famously tussled between Keynesian government involvement to stabilise the Kenyan economy and classical economics to let markets take care of themselves and step aside from meddling too directly in the economy so that the Kenyan economy could grow. President Kibaki’s policies worked and Kenya’s GDP per capita finally outpaced Kenya’s economy since colonial British rule for the first time and our GDP grew faster than nearly every country in the developed world. By 2008’s global financial crash, however, Keynesian economics took a hit as governments tried but failed to stop the global meltdown. Kenya dodged the crisis due to a fairly less intertwined financial system and a lower acceptance of home mortgages in the Kenyan market.
Description:
An article on the Business Daily Newspaper by Professor Scott serves as the Director of the New Economy Venture Accelerator (NEVA) and Chair of the Faculty Senate at the United States International University-Africa,
