Africa's Development Impasse Rethinking the Political Economy of Transformation

Orthodox strategies for socio-economic development have failed spectacularly in Southern Africa. Neither the developmental state nor neoliberal reform seems able to provide a solution to Africa's problems. InAfrica's Development Impasse, Stefan Andreasson analyses this failure and explores post-development alternatives. Looking at the post-independence histories of Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the book shows three different examples of this failure to overcome the debilitating colonial legacy. Andreasson then argues that it is now time to resuscitate post-development theory's challenge to conventional development. In doing this, he claims, we face the enormous challenge of translating post-development into actual politics for a sustainable future and using it as a dialogue about what the aims and aspirations of post-colonial societies might become. This important fusion of theory with new empirical research will be essential reading for students of development politics and Africa.

Stefan Andreasson is Lecturer in Comparative Politics in the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy at Queen's University Belfast.

Acknowledgments * Introduction * Part 1: From Development to Post-Development * Foundations for Development in Southern Africa * The Elusive Developmental Nexus * Beyond Development * Part 2: Comparative Regional Trajectories * Botswana: Paternalism and the Developmental State * Zimbabwe: the Failing State Revisited * South Africa: Normalisation of Uneven Development * Conclusion - Comparative Lessons from Southern Africa * Notes * Bibliography * Index