Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa's Democracies

In Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa's Democracies, M. Anne Pitcher offers an engaging new theory to explain the different trajectories of private sector development across contemporary Africa. Pitcher argues that the outcomes of economic reforms depend not only on the kinds of institutional arrangements adopted by states in order to create or expand their private sectors, but also on the nature of party system competition and the quality of democracy in particular countries. To illustrate her claim, Pitcher draws on several original data sets covering twenty-seven countries in Africa, and detailed case studies of the privatization process in Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa. This study underscores the importance of formal institutions and political context to the design and outcome of economic policies in developing countries.

Author: M. Anne Pitcher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/07/2012
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780521738262

About the Author
Pitcher, M. Anne: - M. Anne Pitcher is Professor of Political Science and African Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Politics in the Portuguese Empire: The State, Industry, and Cotton, 1926-1974 (1993). She co-edited African Postsocialisms with Kelly Askew (2006) and her articles have appeared in Comparative Politics, the Journal of Modern African Studies, African Studies Review and Politique Africaine, among other publications. In 2003-2004, she was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. To explore patterns of political and economic reform across Africa, she has conducted extensive research in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Angola and Uganda.