Historical Amnesia, or, the Logic of Capital Accumulation: Cotton Production in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 757-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alien Isaacman
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
The Impact

In this article, the very different cotton production schemes that the state introduced in colonial and post-colonial Mozambique are explored. Three distinct periods in the history of cotton production are examined. In the first, the focus is on the impact of cotton cultivation on the daily lives of peasants trapped in a highly coercive labor regime which Portugal imposed in 1938 and enforced for almost a quarter of a century. An outline of the abortive attempt of the newly independent FRELIMO government to revitalize cotton production from 1977 to 1985 as part of its broader socialist agenda to transform the countryside, is given next, and the study is concluded with a discussion of recent state efforts to promote joint cotton ventures under the guise of the IMF—World Bank structural adjustment program. An analysis of these changing cotton regimes offers a way of exploring a wide set of issues in the sustainability debate, The Mozambican cotton scheme demonstrates the extent to which state development planning often is not only about either social or ecological sustainability but also about control, power, and effectively silencing the rural poor by experts disconnected from the countryside. It is also stressed that the politics of memory is an important dimension of the sustainability debate and the broader ideological struggles which it reflects. Try as they might, neither the colonial state nor the postcolonial state could control how peasants constructed and interpreted the past. The official representations of cotton as a path to progress, whether on a capitalist or a social road, were simply dismissed by most growers who knew better.

Non-Linear Pathways to Social Transformation: Rosa Luxemburg and The Post-Colonial Condition

2018 ◽  
Vol 94 (94) ◽  
pp. 62-81
Author(s):  
Peter Hudis
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Space ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Working Out ◽  
Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg's The Accumulation of Capital, which spurred intense discussion and debate from the moment of its publication in 1913, has taken on new resonance in light of the global expansion of capitalism, the destruction of indigenous cultures and habitats, and capital's reconfiguration of public and private space. No less important is a series of additional works by Luxemburg that address these themes, but which have received far less attention. These include her notes and lectures on pre-capitalist society that were composed as part of her work as a teacher at the German Social Democratic Party's school in Berlin from 1907-14 and her Introduction to Political Economy, which first led her to confront the problem delineated in The Accumulation of Capital. These writings shed new light on the contributions as well as the limitations of her understanding of the internal and external limits to capital accumulation, especially insofar as the ability of non-capitalist formations and practices to survive the domination of capital is concerned. Luxemburg's understanding of the impact of capitalism in undermining noncapitalist strata has crucial ramifications for working out a viable alternative to capitalism today.

Causal Analyses of Public Debt and Structural Adjustment

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Pastor Ansah
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Structural Mechanism ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
Unintended Effect ◽  
Adjustment Policies ◽  
The Impact

The impact of structural adjustment program on the economic situation in many African countries can not be overemphasised. Over two decades of implementing neo-liberal economic policies by the Bretton Woods institution, it is of great importance to document the lessons learnt. This paper elicits the structural mechanism representing the intended effect of structural adjustment policies and the unintended effects observed from the implementation of the structural adjustment policies. The assumptions and hypotheses implicit in the main structural adjustment policies, as well as the observed unintended effect of the policies are clearly elicited with a causal loop diagram.

Building a Democratic Developmental State in Post-Colonial Africa: South Africa at the Glance

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-208
Author(s):  
Majuta Judas Mamogale
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Developmental States ◽  
Adjustment Program

Abstract Failures of neo-liberalism in Africa through Structural Adjustment Program in the 1980s and 1990s compelled many post-colonial African states to seek alternative growth models to transform and grow their economies. Inspired by the economic success of Asian region, South Africa seeks to replicate the Asian developmental model to transform and industrialise its economy. Reviewing only the literature, the paper found that despite displaying so many similarities with East and South Asian developmental states, the rhetoric for the replication of the Asian developmental state model in South Africa works like a pendulum thus adopting a topsy-turvy approach. The notion of a developmental state is elevated through policy pronouncement and government commitments through the medium term and long-term strategic frameworks for the country. Despite displaying so many similarities with Asian developmental states, affixing the label of a developmental state onto the country by South Africans themselves is not going to make it one.

scholarly journals Health Planning in 1960s Africa: International Health Organisations and the Post-Colonial State

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Manton ◽  
Martin Gorsky
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
World Health ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Existing Structures

This article explores the programme of national health planning carried out in the 1960s in West and Central Africa by the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Health plans were intended as integral aspects of economic development planning in five newly independent countries: Gabon, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone. We begin by showing that this episode is treated only superficially in the existing WHO historiography, then introduce some relevant critical literature on the history of development planning. Next we outline the context for health planning, noting: the opportunities which independence from colonial control offered to international development agencies; the WHO’s limited capacity in Africa; and its preliminary efforts to avoid imposing Western values or partisan views of health system organisation. Our analysis of the plans themselves suggests they lacked the necessary administrative and statistical capacity properly to gauge local needs, while the absence of significant financial resources meant that they proposed little more than augmentation of existing structures. By the late 1960s optimism gave way to disappointment as it became apparent that implementation had been minimal. We describe the ensuing conflict within WHO over programme evaluation and ongoing expenditure, which exposed differences of opinion between African and American officials over approaches to international health aid. We conclude with a discussion of how the plans set in train longer processes of development planning, and, perhaps less desirably, gave bureaucratic shape to the post-colonial state.

scholarly journals Post-Colonial State and Bureaucracy in Bangladesh: Theoretical Understanding

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanif Miah
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
State Administration ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Personal Interests

Bureaucracy is the management apparatus of a state administration. Even in private sector, bureaucratic organization is very much essential for its smooth functioning and betterment. A legalized domination of bureaucracy only can ensure highest efficiency of an organization in a country. But the state bureaucracy of Bangladesh not developed legally from Pre-colonial period to post-colonial phase as well as an independent Bangladesh eventually. The state bureaucracy of Bangladesh is patrimonial in nature based on personal interests. The politicians and bureaucrats are interdependent in various manners for the fulfillment of their purpose illegally in Democratic Bangladesh. Simultaneously, the impact of militarism still exists in state bureaucracy of Bangladesh as it faced military rule in several times.

Seizing the Center

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomáš Petrů
Keyword(s):  
Primary Objective ◽  
New Order ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
East Indies ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
The Impact

This article intends to cast light on historical continuities between pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial organized violent crime in Indonesia and its connection to the country’s rulers. The core argument is that Indonesia and the polities which once existed in its territory have a long history of cooperation between the ruling elites and the criminal world. The early-modern era bandits, called jago, and the modern gangsters, known as preman, arguably represented an important pillar of the power of political regimes in Java from the pre-colonial Javanese kingdoms to the Netherlands East Indies’ colonial state to Soeharto’s New Order. In post-Soeharto Indonesia, political liberation combined with the impact of jihadist Islam(ism) has created conditions in which a number of leather-clad gangsters have turned into vigilante defenders of Islam, who are sometimes co-opted by influential interest groups and sometimes sent back to the political periphery after falling out of favor. While the primary objective of this paper is to analyze the issue of oscillation between incorporation, co-optation, and utilization of criminals and radical Islamic groupings by the powerful, on the one hand, and their elimination, on the other, the paper also looks into how Indonesian historiography has depicted these influential bandits/gangsters/vigilantes and how historiographical sources tend to legitimize them to create an authoritative nationalist narrative.

The Impact of Privatization and Commercialization in Nigeria

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Chukwuma Chukwudumebi Stephen ◽  
Odiwo Williams Omokhudu ◽  
Kifordu Anyibuofu Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Public Enterprises ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
The Government ◽  
Good Policy ◽  
Order Increase ◽  
The Impact

This paper examined the activities/policies of privatization and commercialization of public enterprises in Nigeria and how they have affected the development of the Nation. Although, some of the problems facing public- owned enterprise were examined as well. It looked at the pressure on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fully implement the structural adjustment program that leads to massive deregulation, privatization, and commercialization of public owned enterprises. In addition, it looked at the merits if any, of privatization and commercialization through extensive theoretical review of the performance of the private enterprise in Nigeria. Theories, rationale, and challenges of privatization and commercialization were addressed. The conclusion was that privatization is a good policy measure, which must be pursued with vigor, truth, sincerity, and transparencies even though the government is using such policies to foster a new division of labor between the public and private sectors in a bid to order, increase the efficiency and contribution to the development of both sectors. Privatization and commercialization in Nigeria will be a mirage unless institutional reforms take place. The government should create an environment favorable for private economic activity. This can be done by showing zero tolerance for corruption, nepotism, and misuse of public funds and property by both government and non-government officials.

scholarly journals The Effects of the Structural Adjustment Program on Deforestation in Ghana

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.K.A. Benhin ◽  
E.B. Barbier
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Piecewise Linear ◽  
Reduced Form ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Switching Regression ◽  
Structural Adjustment Program ◽  
Adjustment Policy ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
The Impact

This paper is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the impact of the structural adjustment program (SAP) on forest loss in Ghana between the period 1965–95. An optimal control model is used to derive estimable reduced form equations for forest loss, cocoa land, maize land and timber production, which are in turn functions of mainly input and output prices. Piecewise linear and switching regression approaches are used to distinguish between the influence of the post from the pre-adjustment policy impacts on forest land use. The overall results show that cocoa land expansion and timber production, but not maize land expansion, are significant causes of forest loss in Ghana. However, the impact on forest loss in the post-adjustment period was reduced. Changes in the relative output and input prices due to the SAP may have played a significant role in the reduced impact of agricultural and timber related deforestation in the post-adjustment period.

scholarly journals Political Leadership and Public Accountability in Post-colonial Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Inakefe Gabriel Inakef ◽  
Bassey Virtue Uduak ◽  
Mbonu Felix Ifenna
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
The Impact

In the quest for transparency and accountability in the public sector, several political administrations have initiated public sector reforms to promote accountability and transparency in Nigeria. The paper investigates the impact of political leadership on political accountability and fiscal accountability in Nigeria. It also explains why the problem of lack of accountability has thrived despite the numerous reforms which have been introduced to abate it. Anchored in a documentary/historical research design, the paper observed that the problem of lack of accountability thrives because of legal lapses, weakness of civil society organizations, political patronage and the principle of possessive individualism/primitive capital accumulation that holds the country’s elites are embroiled in. The paper recommends policy learning, adherence to the principles of the constitution and constitutionalism, civil society advocacy, and recall to engender accountability in the Nigerian public sector.

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