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Beyond Neo-Colonialism: Varieties of Corporatism in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Timothy M. Shaw
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Although the essential character of Africa's dependence on the world system changes very slowly, if at all, particular aspects of it are always in flux. For whilst dependence continues to generate underdevelopment, some growth has occurred in several countries at particular periods with important implications for certain classes. The incorporation of the continent into the world system is an ongoing process that reflects shifts in (i) the nature of the world system, and (ii) the nature of Africa's political economies. The sub-structure of the periphery – the capitalist and extractive modes and relations of production – evolves slowly, but the super-structure – the politics and ideology of the state – are considerably more volatile. Given the organic links between the sub- and super-structure, the instability of the latter affects the continuity of the former.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1982 , pp. 239 - 261
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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page 241 note 1 This question of ‘isomorphism’ is dealt with well by Sau, Ranjit, op.cit. p. 129Google Scholar: ‘The controversy on the characterisation of the Third World is particularly acute due to the fact that there the process of surplus generation and appropriation is immensely complex. The contradictory nature of imperialism in relation to the internal class structure of a semicolony generates a complicated mosaic of producation relations which does not fall neatly into any preconceived notion of classification derived from the European records.’

page 241 note 2 Whilst studies of class formation in Africa should not slavishly expect class relations to duplicate the patterns of nineteenth-century Europe, neither should they exclude insights derived from contemporary neo-Marxist analysis. As Harry Goulbourne suggests, ‘the debate on the state in post-colonial societies and that being carried out in Europe over the developed forms of the capitalist state must come closer together’; ‘Some Problems of Analysis of the Political in Backward Capitalist Social Formations’, in his Politics and State in the Third World (London, 1979), p. 29.Google Scholar

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page 241 note 4 Basil Davidson points poignantly to the expectations and disappointments of the nationalist period: ‘The gains of independence were real and many…these were years of an intricate unfolding of ideas and initiatives that grappled with new opportunities, exploited new responsibilities, wrestled with realities which were also new in the sense that colonial power had previously concealed them. They were also years of paying the price for independence on the imported model’. Africa in Modern History: the search for a new society (Harmondsworth, 1978), p. 294.Google Scholar

page 242 note 1 Greg Lanning with Mueller, Marti, Africa Undermined: mining companies and the underdevelopment of Africa (Harmondsworth, 1979), p. 96.Google Scholar

page 243 note 1 Evans, Peter, Dependent Development: the alliance of multinational, state and local capital in Brazil (Princeton, 1979), p. 11.Google Scholar

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page 244 note 1 Ibid. p. 124.

page 244 note 2 Mansour, loc.cit. p. 18. This vicious circle of régime changes may be both less likely to occur, and less critical even if it does occur, in the semi-periphery because of the rise of a national bourgeoisie. As its interests are inserted into the ‘triple alliance’, so greater stability of both negotiations and politics may arise, essential conditions for successful accumulation.

page 244 note 3 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘On Projections, Prescriptions and Plans: a review of the literature on Africa's future’, in Quarterly Journal of Administration (Ife), 14, 4, 07 1980, pp. 463–83Google Scholar, and ‘Introduction: the political economy of Africa's futures’, in Shaw, Timothy M. (ed.), Alternative Futures for Africa (Boulder, Colorado, 1982), pp. 1–16.Google Scholar

page 245 note 1 For earlier reviews of alternative approaches, see Shaw, Timothy M. and Grieve, Malcolm J., ‘Inequalities and the State in Africa’, in Review of Black Political Economy (New York), 8, 1, Fall 1977, pp. 27–42Google Scholar, ‘Chronique Bibliographique – the Political Economy of Africa: internal and international inequalities’, in Cultures et développement (Louvain), 10, 4, 1978, pp. 609–48Google Scholar, and ‘Dependence as an Approach to Understanding Continuing Inequalities in Africa’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, Ill.), 13, 3, 04 1979, pp. 229–46.Google Scholar

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page 245 note 3 See Swainson, Nicola, The Development of Corporate Capitalism in Kenya, 1918–77 (London and Berkeley, 1980), p. 17.Google Scholar

page 245 note 4 This transition from periphery to semi-periphery, from commodity producation to industrial production, has been characterised by Evans, op.cit. p. 10, as a shift from ‘classic dependence’ to one of ‘dependent development’; it also involves a fundamental change in the character and content of the ‘triple alliance’.

page 246 note 1 Lanning with Mueller, op.cit. p. 495.

page 247 note 1 Ibid. p. 97. For an introducation to limited changes and opportunities in the world system, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Dependence to (Inter) Dependence: review of debate on the (New) International Economic Order’, in Alternatives (New York), 4, 4, 03 1979, pp. 557–78.Google Scholar

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page 248 note 2 Ibid. p. 48. For an overview of such emerging issues, see Shaw, Timothy M., Towards an International Political Economy for the 1980s: from dependence to (inter) dependence (Halifax, 1980).Google Scholar

page 248 note 3 Nkrumah, op.cit. p. ix.

page 249 note 1 Ibid. p. 14.

page 249 note 2 Lanning with Mueller, op.cit. p. 501.

page 249 note 3 Ibid. p. 499. As Sau indicates, op.cit. p. 156, the autonomy of the state in the Third World is related to the pattern of class relations: ‘In a society where no single class is in command, but an alliance of classes wields power, the state is vested with a measure of autonomy; and it is called upon to reconcile the conflicts of the ruling class.’

page 250 note 1 Lanning with Mueller, op.cit. p. 501.

page 250 note 2 Sau, op.cit. pp. 155–6.

page 250 note 3 Alavi, Hamza, ‘The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh’, in Goulbourne, (ed.), op.cit. pp. 41–2.Google Scholar

page 250 note 4 Sau, op.cit. pp. 141.

page 251 note 1 Evans, op.cit. p. 100.

page 251 note 2 See Davidson, Basil, Which Way Africa? The Search for a New Society (Harmondsworth, 1967 edn.).Google Scholar See also his writing on the problems of dependence and underdevelopment from a more critical sub-structural perspective: Can Africa Survive? Arguments Against Growth Without Development (Boston, 1974).Google Scholar

page 251 note 3 Yansané, Aguibou Y., ‘Decolonization, Dependency, and Development in Africa: the theory revisited,’ in his collection on Decolonization and Dependency: Problems of development of African societies (Westport, Conn., 1980), p. 27.Google Scholar

page 252 note 1 Davidson, Africa in Modern History, p. 329. For a somewhat similar typology, dividing Africa into ‘state socialist’, and ‘socialist’ political economies, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘The Political Economy of African International Relations’, in Issue (Waltham, Mass.), 5, 4, Winter 1975, pp. 29–38.Google Scholar

page 252 note 2 Mansour, loc.cit. pp. 11–12.

page 253 note 1 Roxborough, op.cit. p. 135.

page 253 note 2 Swainson, op.cit. p. 14.

page 253 note 3 On the dichotomy, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Inequalities and Interdependence in Africa and Latin America: sub-imperialism and semi-industrialisation in the semi-periphery’, in Cultures et développement, 10, 2, 1978, pp. 231–63Google Scholar, and ‘The Semi-Periphery in Africa and Latin America: sub-imperialism and semi-industrialism’, in Review of Black Political Economy, 9, 4, Summer 1979, pp. 341–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 254 note 1 See Shaw, Timothy M. and Grieve, Malcolm J., ‘Dependence or Development: a review article on international and internal inequalities in Africa,’, in Development and Change (The Hague), 8, 3, 07 1977, pp. 377–408Google Scholar, and ‘The Political Economy of Resources: Africa's furture in the global environment’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 16, 1, 03 1978, pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

page 254 note 2 Collier, David, ‘Introduction’, to his collection on The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton, 1979), p. 6.Google Scholar See also Shaw, Towards an International Political Economy for the 1980s.

page 254 note 3 Collier, David, ‘Overview of the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Model’, in Collier, op.cit. p. 25.Google Scholar On the interesting Nigerian case, see Shaw, Timothy M. and Fasehun, Orobola, ‘Nigeria in the World System: alternative approaches, explanations, and projections’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 18, 4, 12 1980, pp. 551–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 255 note 1 Collier, David, ‘The Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Model: synthesis and priorities for future research’, in Collier, op.cit. p. 396.Google Scholar

page 255 note 2 Ibid. pp. 396–7.

page 255 note 3 Collier, Ruth Berins and Collier, David, ‘Inducement versus Constraints: disaggregating “corporatism”’, in The American Political Science Review (Menasha), 73, 4, 12 1979, p. 967.Google Scholar

page 255 note 4 ‘Glossary’, in Collier (ed.), op.cit. p. 400.

page 256 note 1 Stepan, Alfred, The State and Society: Peru in comparative perspective (Princeton, 1978), p. 80.Google Scholar The period from 1975 onwards may mark the beginning of a ‘late’ import-substitution phase in much of Africa, associated with the rise of more exclusionary régimes.

page 256 note 2 O'Donnell, Guillermo A., ‘Corporatism and the Question of the State’, in Malloy, James M. (ed.), Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America (Pittsburgh, 1977), p. 47.Google Scholar

page 256 note 3 See, from a variety of perspectives, Ake, Claude, Revolutionary Pressures in Africa (London, 1978)Google Scholar, Potholm, Christian P., The Theory and Practice of African Politics (Englewood Cliffs, 1979)Google Scholar, and Rosberg, Carl G. and Callaghy, Thomas M. (eds.), Socialism in Sub-Saharan Africa: a new assessment (Berkeley, 1979).Google Scholar

page 257 note 1 Malloy, James M., ‘Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America: the modal pattern’, in Malloy, (ed.), op.cit. p. 10.Google Scholar

page 257 note 2 Ibid. p. 12.

page 257 note 3 Ibid. p. 14. For one of the lamentably few attempts to deal with populism in Africa, see Saul, John S., ‘On African Populism’Google Scholar, in Arrighi, Giovanni and Saul, John S., Essays on the Political Economy of Africa (New York, 1973), pp. 152–79.Google Scholar

page 257 note 4 O'Donnell, loc.cit. p. 78.

page 258 note 1 Collier, ‘Overview of the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Model’, p. 24.

page 258 note 2 Ibid. p. 25.

page 258 note 3 Ibid. p. 26.

page 259 note 1 On the emergence of such a bourgeoisie in Nigeria, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Introduction: Nigeria as Africa's major power’, in Shaw, Timothy M. and Aluko, Olajide (eds.), Nigerian Foreign Policy: alternative perceptions and projections (London, 1982).Google Scholar On the potential of Nigeria for a transition towards the semi-periphery and semi-industrialisation, see Evans, op.cit. p. 313: ‘It would be a negation of the Brazilian historical experience and a theoretical embarrassment if Nigeria were able to step smoothly from classic dependence to dependent development… That the Nigerian case appears suitable to formulations of the triple alliance at all is impressive. In fact, the prospects for Nigeria moving successfully in the direction of the triple alliance seem good. Thirty years ago Brazil had no petroleum engineers; thirty years from now Nigeria should have a class of state-sector executives quite like the men who run Petrobas or Pemex’.

page 259 note 2 Collier, loc.cit. p. 27.

page 259 note 3 Malloy, loc.cit. p. 4.

page 260 note 1 Collier, loc.cit. p. 383.

page 260 note 2 Evans, op.cit. p. 52.

page 260 note 3 Samoff, loc.cit. p. 5. Two recent monographs do lend support to his pre-publication optimism: Saul, John S., The State and Revolution in Eastern Africa (New York, 1979)Google Scholar, and Ake, Claude, A Political Economy of Africa (London, 1981).Google Scholar

page 260 note 4 Samoff, loc.cit. p. 24.

page 261 note 1 Amin, Samir, Neo-Colonialism in West Africa (Harmondsworth, 1973), p. 226.Google Scholar