Social Protection and State Formation in Africa

Abstract

Scholars such Skocpol, de Neubourg, Gray and others have shown that the growth of social protection is closely associated with the development of nation-states in the advanced capitalist world. Indeed, the nature of social protection policies has been used to define the nature of the state. Yet discussions of social protection policies are often divorced from state formation processes in Africa. This is not just because of the preoccupation with poverty alleviation but also because of the dominance of the neoliberal approach. While studies of the politics of social protection have referred to the likely impact of social protection policies on state-citizen relations, the centrality of the nature of citizenship to the growth of social protection in glossed over. This paper examines the growth and limits of social protection in Africa as a product of the nature of citizenship and the processes of state formation in Africa. It explores how social protection in the formal sector came with struggles of workers under the colonial state. It then explores how the growth of social protection has advanced and stultified in the build up to independence and the post-independence periods respectively. It underscores the various social forces at play even as citizens struggle to realise rights. It argues that social protection is central to state stability, social legitimacy and non-violent nation building and that a meaningful adoption of the AU social protection framework is tied to transformation of citizenship as a key imperative of achieving a development state in Africa.

Keywords: State formation, social protection, citizenship, Social legitimacy, Africa

JEL Classification: H55