Varieties of State-Building in Africa: Elites, Ideas and the Politics of Public Sector Reform

ESID Working Paper No 89. Manchester: Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre, The University of Manchester

25 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2017

Date Written: August 31, 2017

Abstract

Why do some states in Africa seem to be stuck in a spiral of corruption and institutional weakness? Why do others somehow build effective bureaucracies that are able and willing to tackle the challenges of development? The public sector remains the inescapable anchor of development, whether for good or ill, but our understanding of the politics of public sector reform remains shackled by concepts that do not allow for variation or change over time. This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding variations in public sector reform (PSR): centering the analysis on the intersection of power relations and ideas, the paper shows how the stability of a country’s elite settlement and the coherence of its developmental ideology interact with reform ideas in the PSR policy domain. This framework is explored through a structured-focused comparison of reform experiences in three Sub-Saharan African countries with different elite settlements: competitive Ghana; weakly dominant Uganda; and dominant Rwanda. In Ghana, where successive regimes have focused on political control for partisan purposes, it has been quick reforms compatible with top-down control that have achieved political traction. In Uganda, high-visibility reforms were introduced to secure donor funding, as long as they did not threaten the ruling coalition’s power. In Rwanda, lastly, the regime has fostered and protected various public sector reforms because it envisioned them as instruments for domestic legitimation as constituent elements of an impartial developmental state. In combination, policy domain, elite time horizons, and ideational fit allow us to move beyond blanket statements about isomorphic mimicry or neopatrimonialism, and towards a more nuanced understanding of the varieties of state-building in Africa.

Keywords: Public sector reform, state-building, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, policy domains, political settlements

Suggested Citation

Yanguas, Pablo, Varieties of State-Building in Africa: Elites, Ideas and the Politics of Public Sector Reform (August 31, 2017). ESID Working Paper No 89. Manchester: Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre, The University of Manchester , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3031801 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3031801

Pablo Yanguas (Contact Author)

University of Manchester ( email )

Oxford Road
Manchester, N/A M13 9PL
United Kingdom

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