Taming the ‘predatory’ state as a
major anti-poverty project in Africaan NGO perspective
Dr Dereje Alemayehu
Christian Aid, East Africa Manager
• What I try to do:
• This is an attempt to present my thoughts on the
issue for discussion.
• This is also an attempt to highlight political
prerequisites for the implementation of
meaningful national anti-poverty programmes,
as well as economic policy formulation &
implementation in terms of long term economic
development
• I touch upon:
• Current perceptions of the African state
• “Genesis of the ‘African State’- colonial and post colonial
periods
• “state crisis” and the neo-liberal therapy – worse than the
disease!
• Inadequacy of recent reforms
• The way forward – national cohesion & reconstruction of
state-society relation based on accountability
• International context – negative and positive influencing
Introduction
• All agree: Poor state performance →
major endogenous reason for poor socioeconomic performance in Africa since
independence.
• Reform policies to rectify this state of
affairs have either worsened the problem
or have not brought about the required
changes to solve it.
Neo-liberal therapy
• “getting prices right” got politics wrong - by
denying that the direction of development is
determined by politics and not by economics
• contributed to weakening already weak states;
• made undemocratic regimes more authoritarian;
• de-legitimised states which already lacked
legitimacy;
• exacerbated the erosion of social capital
“good governance”- the new
therapy
• The current “good governance” discourse,
although an improvement compared to the SAP
years, should still be deepened:
• governance not an issue of only bureaucratic
and technocratic efficiency, this would mean
“government without politics”
• corruption”- systemic not “behavioural
pathology”
• Governance is about restructuring state- society
relation;
CSO and the African State
• Civil society Organisations, especially the so-called
“developmental” NGOs play an ambiguous role in terms
of the process of shaping a democratised “state-society
relationships .
– In their “developmental” role they tend to replace the “failing
state” by engaging in service delivery. CSO cannot replace the
state. They can only “de-responsibilise” it.
– In their advocacy role they tend to “represent” society. This could
also undermine the emergence of legitimised representative
structures in society (articulating the “voice of the voiceless” is
another thing
 Civil society organisations would play a better role if they
conceive themselves as facilitators of “negotiations” between”
society and state in the process of taming the latter
CSO and the African State
– In their advocacy role they tend to “represent”
society. This could also undermine the
emergence of legitimised representative
structures in society
 Civil society organisations would play a better
role if they conceive themselves as
facilitators of “negotiations” between” society
and state in the process of taming the latter
Critics of the African State
• Critics of the African State are numerous, but usually
descriptive rather than analytic; lots of books on this
read like a collection of anecdotes.
• Critical social science should not content itself with
decrying the myriad “failings” of the state;
• it should develop “a positive approach” to determine
“inevitable” contradictions in the historical process
through which state- society relation evolves;
• and thereby identify the social forces and mechanisms
to “tame” the state in a given historical context.
Critical social science research
•
Should take as its point of departure the fact that the
state is a “site of paradox”:
a) the state as one institutional setup among others within a social
formation;
b) the state as unique setup charged with overall responsibility of
maintaining the cohesion of the social formation of which it is a
part.
–
Due to this dual nature, it is continually “pulled and pushed” by
diverse social forces with divergent interests, inherently liable
to be “pulled” by the one or another interest group.
–
An analysis of state-society relation from this perspective may
give insight as to how a state that could be “captured” by
particular interests could be “recaptured” by “society”.
Critical social science research
• Equally important is an analysis of power
relationships in sub-structures of society
could give insight how to democratise
inter-society relationships, without which
democratising state-society relations could
not succeed.
Genesis of the African State under
colonialism
• Most African societies were at different “precapitalist” stages at the advent of colonialism.
Hardly any of the communities were engaged in
surplus production, so there were no “ruling
classes” to organise society with functionally
differentiated institutions to facilitate continuous
production of surplus.
• Most of the countries in SSA thus had no
experience in Statehood and Nationhood before
colonialism.
Genesis of the African state under
colonialism
• After General Malaria successfully foiled settler
colonisation in many parts of Africa, no wealth
creation was initiated (thus no capacity to
produce wealth was created). At best, wealth
extraction was carried out in some regions
endowed with natural resources functional to
northern capitalism.
• States and state functions were created by
colonialist to pacify and subjugate colonised
peoples. Even municipalities were created not to
collect garbage but to enforce forced labour
Legacy of colonialism
• Colonialism was only active in the
destruction of old structures, without
constructing new ones in their place. And
the colonialists left as hastily as they
came, leaving the continent with “the
agony of the old without the birth of the
new.” And the agony persists.
State and nation building after
independence
• State-building was not part of a Nation
building process - an important
“disconnect” to note when dealing with the
incoherence in the state-society relations
in the post-independence period
 The lack of indigenous roots in terms of positive state-society
relations
 lack of productive classes with vested interest in perpetual
production of surplus,
 the inherited and entrenched “extractive culture” at the expense
of neglecting perpetual wealth creation
 Maintenance of state function as a handy tool for this
“extraction”,
 Miscarriage of the “nationalist” project of some of the post
independent leaders miscarried
predestined most of the African states to be “privatisable”
instruments of power such that the ruling elite could utilise them
to pursue its “collective strategy of private enrichment” and to
make the maintenance of patronage systems as a means and
end of political power.
Undeniable improvements- but still
inadequate
• Electoral democracy – but mostly“voting without
choosing”;
• Politicisation of society – only lead to a permanent
“election campaigning”, not to issues-based debate
• “Ownership of development process”- still largely
nominal
• “participation in policy processes” – still formal
• Erosion of social capital not yet checked: people look at
the state with disdain; refuse to internalise norms, rules
and regulations & abide by them
Conclusion
• “Incomplete” nation-building and perennial
dysfunctional state-society relationship
characterise the major political impediment
to eliminate poverty in Africa.
the way forward
• The way forward lies in democratising
state –society relations. This involves
pursuing two interrelated major political
projects:
a) forging national cohesion to put an end to
the fragmentation of society along
parochial ethnic or regionalist lines;
b) Empowering society to put an end to the
prevalence of dysfunctional states;
Forging national cohesion
The history of all late developers shows that
successful development has basically
been a politically induced process
propelled by nationalism. Thus there
national cohesion is a prerequisite for
national development.
To forge national cohesion:
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Work out national consensus which enables regulating social and political
conflicts democratically
Establish a broad and stable political coalition for a common social project
with the eradication of poverty as a cardinal element – “shifting coalitions of
self seeking political elite a major problem in “pluralist party democracy”
Reclaim policy sovereignty to formulate policies and strategies that reflect
the needs and aspirations of majority of citizens in a country
Develop a shared recognition that development takes place in a difficult,
uncertain and even hostile international environment;
Develop a shared conviction that it needs a combined national effort to
mitigate adverse influences and make use of opportunities emanating from
the international context
Develop a Pan-African perspective: - as a united nation-state enhance
regional integration – which helps avoid interstate conflicts & enhances
collective bargaining power in the international context
CSO with constituencies that transcend ethnicity – trade unions, farmers
unions, chambers of commerce, professional associations, FBO could and
should play a major role in this process
Reconstruct a functional state:
this requires
• Transform Africans from subjects to citizens.
Subjects obey, citizens hold governments to
account. - This involves a painstaking
awareness raising and organisational work. Not
individuals, but organised individuals could hold
those who rule to account
• Develop & agree on mechanisms that enable to
reconstruct a sate-society relationship based on
accountability in all its forms & at all levels
• So-called “development NGO” could and should
play a leading role in this process
Functional state
• Facilitate an informed and organised
participation of citizens in the political and
policy processes
– The policy process is as important as –if not
more important than - the policy content itself.
– The possibility of citizens holding
governments accountable is directly
proportional to their own participation in the
policy formulation process.
Functional state
• Challenge “aid dependency syndrome” to
reduce importance of accountability to “donors”
at the cost of domestic accountability.
– no representation without taxation – the inversion of
the famous American slogan –”No taxation without
representation
– (The power of European monarchs was curtailed not
when their heads were cut off, but when their hands
were tied to keep them away from the treasury)
– making African states more dependent on internal
revenue is thus one of the most important
mechanisms to reconstruct state-society relation
based on accountability
International context & democratising state-society relation- stop
negative influencing
• the competition between the two superpowers
for “sphere of influence” and neo-colonialism of
former colonial powers was a big impediment for
democratisation;
• It is not a mere coincidence that
“democratisation” as a “political conditionality”
came with the end of the cold war
• But interference of foreign powers in individual
countries which negatively affect
democratisation is not yet over – “anti-terrorism
laws” an example;
- Negative influences
• “economic conditionality” still an impediment to
policy sovereignty
– It inhibits national debate on policies with a
meaningful participation of the population; even
participation of the mostly rubber stamp parliaments
is nominal
– It perpetuates aid dependency, thus leads to neglect
of national resource mobilisation,
– It has created an attitude of “anticipatory obedience”
among African leaders
– The fungibility of aid – frees resources for corrupt
leaders to oil their patronage system
Global governance –positive influencing to enhance
democratisation – this could help for example to :
• de-link aid policy from foreign policy interests of big
powers;
• curtail propping up undemocratic regimes favoured by
the one or the other foreign power
• Create and enforce mechanisms to hold TNC
accountable – thus reducing economic crimes and
political corruption they perpetrate in Africa
• Create an international tax regime that could curtail tax
competition among African countries, and tax
avoidance/evasion by TNC
• Ensure the implementations of conventions etc to which
African States are signatories. This would enormously
strengthen the internal democratisation process