The Spread of Economic Doctrines and Policymaking in Postcolonial Africa

Mkandawire, Thandika

doi:10.1017/asr.2014.12

Cited by 50 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Thandika wrote about so much more than just African development issues. He wrote about rebel movements and the African peasantry (Mkandawire 2002), African intellectual life (1995,2005), social movements and democracy (Mamdani, Mahmood, Mkandawire & Wamba-dia-Wamba 1988) and idea formation (Mkandawire 2014) among other topics. In a nutshell, there is everything for everyone in his scholarship.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thandika Mkandawire: A ‘young’ African economist’s appreciation

Chelwa

2020

African Studies

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The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people who produced him.'-James Baldwin Thandika Mkandawire, the towering Malawian economist and public intellectual, went to be with the ancestors on 27 March 2020. Professor Mkandawire liked to be called by his first name, Thandika, even by those, like me, who were significantly younger than he. This always caused problems for those raised in the African tradition of reverence for elders, which manifests in prefixing names with titles. Whenever he was not in earshot, when discussing his work with others, I called him 'Prof': 'Prof says Africa's problems are as much caused by external forces as they are by internal ones'. When speaking with him, I mustered all the courage in my bones and called him 'Thandika'. In this piece, reflecting on his work, I am torn as to what to call him. In one sense I am talking to others about his work. In another I am conversing with him as an ancestor. I shall gather all my courage and call him Thandika. Thandika belonged to that rare specimen of humanity that could effortlessly combine administrative duties with scholarly pursuits. The bulk of his most impactful work was written during a time that he was an administrative head of one sort or the other. His most enduring administrative role was that of executive secretary of the Dakar-based Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), a position he held from 1985 to 1996. This was a time of great political and economic tumult on the African continent, and CODESRIA, under his leadership, produced a horde of scholarship that distilled the situation and continues to be a reference for younger scholars today. From CODESRIA, Thandika went on to direct the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva, a position he held from 1998 to 2009. He only 'relaxed' into a full-time academic position at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2010. At LSE he held the inaugural Chair in African Development. At the kind invitation of African Studies, I have been asked to reflect on Thandika's life and work. I have decided to focus more on his scholarly work, particularly his impact on the social sciences in Africa and especially on economics. The challenge in conducting an appraisal of a giant's life's work is in deciding which aspects of that work to appraise. In Thandika's case, the challenge is a significant one because his career spanned four decades (five if you include his years as a journalist in Malawi in the 1960s) with a long and diverse list of publications. 1 My admittedly half-hearted attempt at resolution is to

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thandika Mkandawire: A ‘young’ African economist’s appreciation

Chelwa

2020

African Studies

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“…The theory will struggle to explain industrial policy failures without accounting for the relationship between foreign actors and the domestic configuration of power. This is not new: the abandonment of ISI in the 1980s was influenced by international power asymmetries (Mkandawire, 2014). However, in the context of proliferating trade agreements and increasingly complicated global value chains, we can expect the global spillover effects of industrial policies to grow and for grieving parties to perforate commitment in ever subtler ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global politics of African industrial policy: the case of the used clothing ban in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda

Wolff

2020

Review of International Political Economy

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In 2016, the East African Community (EAC) pledged to phase out imports of used clothing within three years. The US Trade Representative (USTR) responded by threatening to revoke preferential market access for those involved. Within two years, all EAC states except Rwanda backed down. Using 21 original interviews, this article explores the extent to which political settlements theory can explain variation in commitment to the used clothing ban in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Building on existing research into shrinking 'policy space,' I explicitly consider the role of foreign actors. The ban predominantly imposed costs on consumers, used clothing retailers, and foreign used clothing exporters whose interests were represented by the USTR. EAC apparel manufacturers stood to gain, but the most powerful firms in this sector were foreign-owned exporters who valued the US market more than domestic sales. The US intervention, therefore, changed the stakes for the policy's intended beneficiaries. While vulnerable and contested ruling coalitions in Kenya and Uganda struggled to hold out in conflict with affected groups, a strong dominant party in Rwanda could absorb resistance by marshaling legitimacy from alternative sources and increasing its efforts to sensitize the local population.

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“…Burkina Faso, Kenya and many other African countries are not owning a benign and eco-socially responsible form of development. Contrary to the dominant notions put forth that place responsibility for climate catastrophe, social upheaval and economic disintegration at the feet of African elites and politicians, these actors are embracing the very logic and dictates of capitalist development (Livingstone, 2019; Mkandawire, 2014). Social movements and assailed communities have come to understand that capitalism, extraction, development, insecurity and the modern state are so mutually constitutive across the continent that it is impossible to resist one aspect without confronting all of these forces in their entirety.…”

Section: Owning the Extraction And Environmentmentioning

confidence: 96%