Africa's Stalled Development: International Causes and Cures

This discussion of Africa's stagnant economies and civil disorders examines the dysfunctional incentives under which the continent's political and economic elites typically operate and offers a new way of thinking about Africa's development dilemmas and the policy options for addressing them. Weak states, personal rule and aid dependence, argue the authors, combine to create deep disincentives to development. Most often, these negative structural features are sustained by the nature of Africa's interaction with the rest of the international system; thus, the cure must come from a radical restructuring of that relationship. The specific, and decidedly controversial, prescription for change that is at the heart of Africa's Stalled Development should stimulate a much-needed debate.