Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai

Bio: Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai is an academic researcher from University of Ghana. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Social protection. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 42 publications receiving 680 citations. Previous affiliations of Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai include University of Manchester.

Governing Extractive Industries: Politics, Histories, Ideas

Abstract: Proposals for more effective natural resource governance emphasize the importance of institutions and governance, but say less about the political conditions under which institutional change occurs. This book synthesizes findings regarding the political drivers of institutional change in extractive industry governance. The authors analyse resource governance from the late nineteenth century to the present in Bolivia, Ghana, Peru, and Zambia. They focus on the ways in which resource governance and national political settlements interact. Special attention is paid to the nature of elite politics, the emergence of new political actors, forms of political contention, changing ideas regarding natural resources and development, the geography of natural resource deposits, and the influence of the transnational political economy of global commodity production. National elites and subnational actors are in continuous contention over extractive industry governance. Resource rents are used by elites to manage this contention and incorporate actors into governing coalitions and overall political settlements. Periodically, new resource frontiers are opened, and new political actors emerge with the power to redefine how extractive industries are governed and used as instruments for development. Colonial and post-colonial histories of resource extraction continue to give political valence to ideas of resource nationalism that mobilize actors who challenge existing institutional arrangements. The book is innovative in its focus on the political longue durée, and the use of in-depth, comparative, country-level analysis in Africa and Latin America, to build a theoretical argument that accounts for both similarity and divergence between these regions.

'Political will in combating corruption in developing and transition economies: A Comparative Study of Singapore, Hong Kong and Ghana’

Abstract: Purpose – In recognition of corruption as a major obstacle to the development processes of poor countries, the search for effective strategies in combating the phenomenon in developing countries has become a major preoccupation of the international donor community, particularly since the early 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of “political will” in combating corruption in Hong Kong, Singapore and Ghana with the view to drawing significant lessons for all developing and transition countries in their anticorruption crusades.Design/methodology/approach – The findings in this paper are based on an extensive review of relevant literature and personal experiences in Ghana.Findings – This paper concludes that controlling corruption in a sustained manner requires a consistent demonstration of genuine commitment on the part of the top political elite towards the eradication of the menace. Where the commitment of the top political leadership to the goal of eradicating corruption in a country ...

The Politics of Regional Inequality in Ghana: State Elites, Donors and PRSPs

Abstract: Through an analysis of Ghana's HIPC Fund which was established as part of the PRSP process, this article shows how aid-financed efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies reducing regional inequality in order to have access to aid funding but, once approved, these funds were allocated on quite different criteria in ways that marginalised the poorest. This analysis reinforces the growing recognition that developmental outcomes in most poor countries are shaped not so much by the design of ‘good’ policies per se, but more importantly by the power relationships within which policy-implementing institutions are embedded. Aid donors seem unable to grasp this important lesson fully, and so their capacity to contribute to reducing regional inequality remains limited.

The politics of governing oil effectively: a comparative study of two new oil-rich states in Africa.

Abstract: The challenges facing developing countries with new-found natural resource wealth are generally understood in terms of whether they have the institutions of ‘good governance’ required to avoid the resource curse. New insights from a political settlements perspective show how deeper forms of politics and power relations play a more significant role than such institutions, and help explain some counter-intuitive findings regarding how ‘semi-authoritarian’ Uganda seems to be governing oil somewhat more in line with its national interest as compared to ‘democratic’ Ghana. We find that bureaucratic ‘pockets of effectiveness’ play a critical role, with outcomes shaped by the nature of their embedded autonomy vis-a-vis different kinds of ruling coalition. Efforts to promote ‘best-practice’ governance reforms in such contexts might be misplaced, and could be replaced with a stronger focus on building specific forms of state capacity and a greater acceptance that ‘developmental collusion’ between political and bureaucratic actors may offer more appropriate or ‘best-fit’ solutions.

Strong Societies And Weak States State Society Relations And State Capabilities In The Third World

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Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

Abstract: dann zu seinem Gegenstand, der Selbstorganisation in der evolutorischen Ökonomik, zu gelangen (S. 256 ff.). Er vermutet, dass schon Adam Smith den Grundgedanken des Paradigmas „unsichtbaren Hand“ vorweggenommen habe (ebenda). Etwas verwirrend dürfte die Unterscheidung des Autors zwischen Mikround Makroebene sein (S. 257), wenn der Leser an die herkömmlichen Kategorien denkt. Gemeint sind vom Autor die einzelwirtschaftliche und die Ebene des Marktprozesses. Damit dürften die ungeplanten Ergebnisse auf der Marktprozessebene und die nicht intendierten Handlungsfolgen (wiederum bezogen auf die Marktebene) verständlicher werden. Später (S. 254) weist der Autor auf einen bedeutenden Unterschied zwischen der physikalischen und ökonomischen Selbstorganisation hin. Im ersten Fall sind die Systemelemente passiv, währen sie im zweiten Fall initiativ und mit Erwartungen sowie Absichten ausgestattet sind. Die beiden Fälle beschreiben das, was Hayek mit der Unterscheidung von geplanter und ungeplanter oder spontaner Ordnung meint. Für ihn dürfte die ungeplante Ordnung ein Phänomen der Selbstorganisation sein, während die geplante Ordnung ein Produkt der Fremdorganisation wäre. Abschließend kommt der Autor zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Übertragung des betrachteten Paradigmas auf die evolutorische Ökonomik sowohl nach Anwendungsbereich als auch nach Erkenntnisgewinn bescheiden bleibt (S. 260). Das dürfte, gemessen an der ebenfalls der klassischen Physik (Mechanik) entlehnten Neoklassik bescheiden sein. Es kann jedoch auch als Aufforderung angesehen werden, weiterzusuchen, ohne die zentralen Phänomene der Neuerung und Entwicklung aus dem Auge zu verlieren.

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Abstract: The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations. Centuries passed, and Latin America perfected its role. We are no longer in the era of marvels when fact surpassed fable and imagination was shamed by the trophies of conquest-the lodes of gold, the mountains of silver. But our region still works as a menial. It continues to exist at the service of others' needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them. The taxes collected by the buyers. are much higher than the prices received by the sellers; and after all, as Alliance for Progress coordinator Covey T. Olive/;\" said in July 1968, to speak of fair prices is a \"medieval\" concept, for we are in the era of free trade.

Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia

Abstract: Periods of economic insecurity affect different age groups in different ways. Whether you call them generations or cohorts, life experiences framed by the unique intersection of age and history have proved a fascinating subject for social scientists. In their coming-of-age account of the group of birth cohorts some have dubbed Generation X, Lesley Andres and Johanna Wyn provide a readable, theoretically embedded, and empirically supported account of how policy, economic conditions, and persistent inequality create currents that can lead us to different futures from those we imagined. Utilizing a longitudinal design and 14 to 15 years of data from the ‘‘Paths on Life’s Way’’ project, based in British Columbia, Canada, and the ‘‘Life Patterns’’ project, set in Victoria, Australia, the authors examine how these two sets of adolescents, who completed their secondary schooling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, manage decisions about postsecondary education, work, and relationships in a context of increasing economic insecurity, global competition, workplace restructuring, and persistent inequalities by class and gender. The similarities in the political, social, and economic institutions of Canada and Australia allow the authors to spotlight how expansions in post-secondary education were orchestrated, how the goal of expanding education opportunity was reflected in education achievement, and how these young adults tried to articulate their educational credentials and life goals with the changing work environment. The authors organize the material into five interrelated themes: reluctant change makers, an education generation, generating new patterns of family life, a generation in search of work/life balance, and a diverse generation. In unfolding these themes, they show us how, on the one hand, these young people wanted the same sorts of things we wanted at their age—financial security (but not necessarily wealth), good relationships, and happiness. But the circumstances they face are different—better in some ways, more difficult in others. Part of that difficulty stems from the diverse pathways available to young people, which may appear incomprehensible to those who argue that more choice is always better. Those trying to figure out how to get from here to there find that having ‘‘endless possibilities’’ is not necessarily a comfort, especially when we later discover that some of those routes are in disrepair, others are too crowded, and still others come with detours that may keep us from ever reaching our destinations. Rather, seeing some number of clearly articulated routes that lead to a specific outcome assures us that we will be able to reach our goals. The trend toward the individualization of risk that has been noted in both the academic and popular press appears here in various manifestations—for example, the anxiety felt over choosing the right major, finding more than a dead-end job, and paying off student loans. The other side of this trend is showing how the costs of social change are externalized, sometimes with unintended consequences. As families and students absorb the higher costs of post-secondary schooling, parents continue to house their graduates well into their 20s, graduates delay marriage and children until they are able to establish some financial foothold, while employers are able to hire college graduates to fill clerical jobs. When the costs of such widespread social change are shifted, those already in a position of disadvantage are often the most vulnerable. Despite the expansion of post-secondary education, existing patterns of inequality are reproduced as new generations are sorted into winners and losers. Those whose parents are college graduates manage the secondary to post-secondary transition more smoothly