Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 2010"

The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East

Abstract: Preface ix PART I Introduction Chapter 1: The Puzzle of the Middle East's Economic Underdevelopment 3 Chapter 2: Analyzing the Economic Role of Islam 25 PART II Organizational Stagnation Chapter 3: Commercial Life under Islamic Rule 45 Chapter 4: The Persistent Simplicity of Islamic Partnerships 63 Chapter 5: Drawbacks of the Islamic Inheritance System 78 Chapter 6: The Absence of the Corporation in Islamic Law 97 Chapter 7: Barriers to the Emergence of a Middle Eastern Business Corporation 117 Chapter 8: Credit Markets without Banks 143 PART III The Makings of Underdevelopment Chapter 9: The Islamization of Non-Muslim Economic Life 169 Chapter 10: The Ascent of the Middle East's Religious Minorities 189 Chapter 11: Origins and Fiscal Impact of the Capitulations 209 Chapter 12: Foreign Privileges as Facilitators of Impersonal Exchange 228 Chapter 13: The Absence of Middle Eastern Consuls 254 PART IV Conclusions Chapter 14: Did Islam Inhibit Economic Development? 279 Notes 303 References 349 Index 393

Regions in Question : Space, Development Theory and Regional Policy

Abstract: Part One Common regional policy objectives 1. Regional, imbalance as a policy problem 2. Growth, income distribution and spatial inequality Part Two Rival regional planning strategies 3. Urban-industrial growth pole strategies and the diffusion of modernization 4. Some anti-theses: polarization and the development of underdevelopment 5. Neo-populist regional development strategies Part Three The poverty of the spatial sepratist theme 6. Space and explanation in regional development theory 7. The limits of spacial policy and territorial regional planning Conclusion The state, development and regional planning practice

Democracy and good governance: Nigerias dilemma

Abstract: Despite its enormous resources and huge potentialities, Nigeria remains grossly undeveloped. Consequently, political instability, abject poverty, acute youth unemployment, heightened crime rate, poor health prospects and widespread malnourishment have been the main features of Nigeria’s political economy. The development tragedy in Nigeria fits into the trends of political instability for which Africa has become infamous for in the past three decades. This further lends credence to the arguments by some students of African politics that governance is one of the major problems in Africa. This paper argues that the problem of development in Nigeria is a problem of governance; when defined in term of the proper, fair and equitable allocation of resources for the achievement of the end or purposes of the state, which is the promotion of the common good. The paper submits that for good governance to be feasible in Nigeria, sound anti-corruption policies devoid of mere speeches must be put in place. Furthermore, the paper recommends a functional legislature, a viable and independent judiciary, and the attitudinal transformation on the part of the political elite, the absence of which good governance and development will continue to be a mirage. Key words: Corruption, instability, underdevelopment, democracy, good governance.

Sport, Race, and Bio-Politics: Encounters With Difference in “Sport for Development and Peace” Internships:

Abstract: This article analyzes young Canadian volunteer interns’ encounters with sociocultural difference within the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) movement. Using Foucauldian bio-power, Third Wave, or transnational feminism and Hardt and Negri’s Empire, it examines how interns interpreted difference as markers of underdevelopment which secured the focus of the SDP movement on the underdevelopment of others. Following the Empire framework, this bio-political regulation centered on the corporeal and the somatic, key elements of the sporting experience, and drew on social interpretations of race and its intersections with gender and class. While interns offered some critical perspectives, the results corroborate recent analyses of international development in which neoliberal logic sustains the focus of development on the “conduct of conduct” and largely at the expense of attending to broader issues of inequality.

The Oil and Gas Industry and the Niger Delta: Implications for the Environment

Abstract: The causes of environmental degradation and biodiversity depletion arising from the activities of the oil industry in the region are evaluated The authors argue that, specific negative impact on the region arising from the activities of the industries include: environmental pollution, biodiversity depletion, social destabilization, underdevelopment of host communities, global warming and associated elevated flood risk Furthermore, a direct consequence of property rights structure following from existing legislature is the underdevelopment of host communities in spite of huge national earnings from oil and gas since 1970 The authors concluded by favouring all embracing and genuine stakeholders participation in environmental and developmental issues in the region

The law of worldwide value

Abstract: In his new extensively revised and expanded edition of this book, Samir Amin suggests new approaches to Marxian analysis of the crisis of the late capitalist system of generalized, financialized, and globalized oligopolies following on the financial collapse of 2008. Considering that Marx's Capital, written before the emergence of imperialism as a decisive factor in capitalist accumulation, could provide no explanation for the persistent "underdevelopment" of the countries of the "global South," Amin advances several important theoretical concepts extending traditional Marxian views of capitalist evolution. Most strikingly, he proposes adding to the model of reproduction in Volume II of Capital a Third Department of Production devoted to surplus absorption, necessitated by the capitalist tendency constantly to produce an economic surplus too large to be realized by the consumption and investment purchases generated within Marx's original two-department model. Equally interesting is his theoretical concept of "imperialist rent," derived from the scaling of radically different wages paid for the same labor in countries of the North and the South, whose effect has been to provide Northern capital with sufficient profits to permit it to pacify for a long period its conflict with the Northern proletariat. To account for this new type of rent he extends the Marxian "law of value" in the form of a "law of globalized value" whose operations determine such changes in the polarized world system as the industrial growth of many Third-World nations within the global imperialist context. Amin sees the present crisis as a moment in the second long crisis of the capitalist system, dating from the early 1970's (the first long crisis, he maintains, lasted from 1873 until 1945). He sees no exit from repeated crises under capitalism except the descent into barbarism. The challenge is not to escape from the crisis of capitalism-a hopeless project-but to escape from capitalism in crisis. And Amin reasserts his historical optimism as to the socialist project. He expects a "second wave" of socialist attempts that will stem from the self-liberating efforts of the nations and peoples of the South which, by eliminating the imperialist rent, will lead to an awakening of the Northern popular classes to join the awakening of the global South. This book has an important place among the theoretical resources for anyone involved in the study of contemporary Marxian economic and political theory.

A View from the Tropics: Celso Furtado and the Theory of Economic Development in the 1950s

Abstract: The article shows how Celso Furtado's interpretation of development and underdevelopment as interdependent phenomena was part of the emergence of development economics as a research field in the 1950s. The main features of underdeveloped economic structures, according to Furtado, were their technological heterogeneity—in the sense of significant differences in the capital-labor ratio between two or more sectors—and underemployment caused by maladjustment between the availability of factors and irreversible production methods. Both characteristics were explained by the historical pattern of integration of those economies into international trade.

Growing public? Explaining the changing economic role of the state in Asia over the twentieth century

Abstract: This paper surveys some of the recent literature on the role of the state in economic history, paying particular attention to the concepts of the contractual, predatory, regulatory and developmental states and their application to the study of economic development. The paper then relates that literature to the Asian experience over the 20th century. It is argued that neither the concept of the night watchman nor that predatory or extractive colonial state as a cause of continuing underdevelopment in many parts of the tropical world is entirely satisfactory in the Asian context. By the early twentieth century, there was a growing recognition in most colonies that colonial administrations had a responsibility to improve living standards of the indigenous populations. The paper examines the consequences of this recognition for colonial revenue and expenditure policies, and also for the role of government in the post-independence era in Asia.

"This lofty mountain of silver could conquer the whole world”: Potosí and the political ecology of underdevelopment, 1545-1800

Abstract: By the 1570’s, Potosi, and its silver, had become the hub of a commodity revolution that reorganized Peru’s peoples and landscapes to serve capital and empire. This was a decisive moment in the world ecological revolution of the long seventeenth century. Primitive accumulation in Peru was particularly successful: the mita’s spatial program enabled the colonial state to marshal a huge supply of low-cost and tractable labor in the midst of sustained demographic contraction. The relatively centralized character of Peru’s mining frontier facilitated imperial control in a way the more dispersed silver frontiers of New Spain did not. Historical capitalism has sustained itself on the basis of exploiting, and thereby undermining, a vast web of socio-ecological relations. As may be observed in colonial Peru, the commodity frontier strategy effected both the destruction and creation of premodern socio-ecological arrangements.

Foreign aid, the Third Worlds debt crisis and the implication for economic development: The Nigerian experience

Abstract: The nature of interdependence of nations necessitates granting of aid to needy countries. Theorists, however, vary in their approaches of the factors that contributed to the development of the underdevelopment of the Third World. While the bourgeois scholars argued that the underdevelopment and dependency situation of the Third World was due to the internal contradictions of this group of countries arising from bad leadership, mismanagement of national resources and elevation of personal aggrandisement and primordial interests over and above national interest, the neo-Marxian scholars, on the other hand, submitted and insisted that what propelled the development of the developed countries also facilitated, in the same measure, the underdevelopment of the underdeveloped countries. These are: colonialism, slave trade and unequal exchange. The interest of this paper, therefore, is to look at the two sides of the coin using dependency theory to scientifically analyse the arguments put forth by both schools of thought. It also looks at leitmotif of foreign loan and its implication on the economies of the Third World Countries (TWCs). Key words: Bourgeois, colonialism, dependency, exchange, interdependence, leadership, underdevelopment.

Rhetorical routes for development: a road project in Nepal

Abstract: Rhetoric is adopted in this paper as a lens to look at the claims made by a road-building project in a region of Nepal characterised by ‘remoteness’ and underdevelopment. The notion that the road connecting to the infrastructure on the Chinese side of the border will improve the livelihoods of the poor on the Nepalese side is discussed with a range of people in different villages along the proposed route. By attending to vernacular articulations of poverty and globalisation, it is argued that a method of rhetorical sensibility offers greater ethnographic value for understanding development's entanglements with social life than does the notion of discourse.

Homeownership in South Korea: Examining Sector Underdevelopment

Abstract: Despite government emphasis on home purchase and four decades of extensive house building, levels of owner-occupation in South Korea remain relatively modest This paper examines Korean homeownership policy development, identifying key reasons for the limited growth: the underdevelopment of housing finance; unproductive government intervention on property speculation; ineffective tax support for low-income home purchase; and the structure of the rental sector Korean housing policy is characteristically supply driven, which has expanded housing stock but distorted distribution, increased speculation and polarised housing wealth This paper considers the underdevelopment of demand-side policies as the underlying failure in the sustainable and equitable expansion of homeownership It also implicates housing more centrally in East Asian policy regime divergence

Banking development, human capital and economic growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA)

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of three economic growth theories in Sub‐Saharan Africa economies.Design/methodology/approach – This empirical paper employs a panel data framework, using fixed effect, random effects and maximum likelihood estimation techniques. It further conducts some sensitivity analyses.Findings – The paper finds that both the stock of human capital (HC) and the physical capital are important for growth in the region, the paper does not find strong impact of financial development (FD) in the region, perhaps due to long period of financial repression or financial underdevelopment in the region. It however finds strong complementarity features in interaction of both finance and HC on growth.Research limitations/implications – The analysis in the paper is confined to banking development indicators, due to inadequate data for capital market indicators as well as underdevelopment of the stock market in the region.Practical implications – The policy regime...

Development Theory : Four Critical Studies

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The Meaning of Development, with a Postscript 3. A Critique of Development Economics in the US 4. Modernisation, Order and the Erosion of a Democratic Ideal 5. Sociology of Underdevelopment Versus Sociology of Development

Institutions in African history and development: A review essay

Abstract: In this review, I discuss the role of African institutions in general and pre-colonial institutions in particular in explaining present-day African poverty. Six of the most often cited explanations of African poverty -- geography, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, the slave trades, colonial rule, underdevelopment, and failed aid -- operate largely through institutions. Bad institutions themselves directly affect modern growth. Pre-colonial institutions also matter for present-day outcomes. I look at four broad institutional types (land tenure, slavery, polygyny and states), outline influential theories that explain why they took the shapes they did before colonial rule, and why they matter to Africa today.

Resources and Rent Seeking in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract: By examining the Congolese political economy through the lens of the ‘resource curse’ theory, this article aims to advance our understanding of the chronic underdevelopment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Proceeding in three distinct phases the article examines the effect of resource rents, foreignn aid and the likely effect of Chinese investment. It finds that a political tradition of patrimonialism and corruption based on large inflows of easily corruptible resource rents was established in the Mobutu period. In the post-conflict period the source of revenue shifted from resource rents to foreign aid, while the political tradition remained essentially unchanged. The model of the Congolese political economy established in these first two sections will then be used to make an informed assessment of the Sicomines deal. The article finds that the structured nature of the deals means that it is unlikely to perpetuate the ‘resource curse’ condition.

Politics Does Matter: The Nigerian State and Oil (Resource) Curse

Abstract: Conventional explanations of the resource curse, or the paradox of abundance, correlate resource abundance and bad economic policies, underdevelopment, poverty and conflict. Such a conclusion has become debatable and has encouraged analysts to develop conditional explanations that emphasize the role of the political rather than economic factors in the mechanisms underpinning the resource curse. Using the Inter-governmental Fiscal Relations system in Nigeria as an example, this paper argues that, while the policy choices of politicians determines how resource rents are utilized, the extent to which political institutions promote the use of rational and meritocratic criteria in allocating public sector resources and ensure accountability is what matters. This is of crucial importance in determining whether resource abundance will lead to resource curse.

Lines of Desire: Power and Materiality Along a Tanzanian Caravan Route

Abstract: The caravan routes that connected the East African interior to the coast are well known from the nineteenth century, when trade along them was intense and increasingly formalised. It is understood that this brought important changes in the structure of society, in people–object relations and in the opportunities for the exercise of power; we also assume that this situation differed from pre-colonial periods, yet very little archaeological work has examined that assumption. Understandings of the incorporation of this region into a larger world of commodity exchange have been based upon implicit assumptions about the role of trade; these often stress the underdevelopment of East Africa. Yet it is necessary to examine the ways in which foreign goods were made commensurable with valuables and assets in the regional economy before it is possible to discuss the ways that access to these goods may have affected local power structures. This paper attempts such an analysis, through a focus on two areas in the interior which have been the subject of recent archaeological field work. By tracing the specific histories of their interaction with objects before and during the nineteenth century, it examines the assumption that the accumulation of exotic objects was necessarily the basis of authority. Instead, it will be argued that the ways in which new opportunities and objects were incorporated were specific and local, fitting within existing schemes of understanding and the authorisation of power.

Testing democracy : which way is South Africa going?

Abstract: The book interrogates the relationship between democracy and development and how underdevelopment prevents citizens from participating in democracy. Section One is a collection of experts’ writing on key issues such as the single-party state; development policy; poverty, inequality and growth; the institutions of governance; the public service; and the role of civil society. Section Two, Idasa’s Democracy Index 2010, releases Idasa’s findings on Participation, Elections, Accountability, Political Freedom, Human Dignity and Democracy. The third in Idasa’s Democracy Index series, this book argues that democracy needs economic development along with an embedded system of institutions, supported by active citizens and a vibrant political culture.

The Corruption-Underdevelopment Nexus in Africa: Which Way Nigeria?!

Abstract: To state that corruption abounds in Nigeria is to restate the obvious. The guardian coup of January 1966 was given the thumbs-up by many Nigerians who saw the military putsch as a welcome relief from the prevailing conditions of pervasive corruption and deepening socio-economic crisis. Nigerians hoped that soldiers who hailed from a more structured and regimented background, vis-a-vis their civilian counterparts, would be apt to free the nation from the stranglehold of corruption and emplace a much needed professionalism in the country's civil service. But time and again, military leaders emphatically lacked the requisite gravitas and savoir faire to stem the tide of corruption and install good governance. Unfettered by the rule of law and goaded on by the lure of personal gain, the military became a vanguard of unbridled self-aggrandisement and frenetic looting. The 'by-product' was the emergence of an increasingly predatory and self-interested ruling class. This paper assays ongoing initiatives that are likely to affect the trend of corruption in Nigeria. They might also sow the seed for an appropriate holistic approach toward success in the nation's anticorruption crusade. Key Words: Guardian Coup; Post-constitutional Opportunism; Political and Bureaucratic Corruption; Underdevelopment. Introduction For many people in other parts of the world, the mention of Africa stirs up images of civil unrest, war, poverty, disease, criminality, pervasive corruption and mounting social ills. The political environment in many African states has been fraught with difficulties, not least within the sphere of corrupt practices. In a damning indictment of Africa's political history, the Commission for Africa (2005:106) noted that "Africa has suffered from governments that have looted the resources of the state; that could not or would not deliver services to their people; that in many cases were predatory, corruptly extracting their countries' resources, that maintained control through violence and bribery; and that squandered and stolen aid." Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize from Kenya, Wangari Maathai (2009), expressed the view widely shared by most Africans: "one of the major tragedies of postcolonial Africa is that the African people have trusted their leaders, but only a few of those leaders have honored that trust. What has held Africa back and continues to do so has its origins in the lack of principled, ethical leadership." Chinua Achebe, the well-known Nigerian novelist, was even more emphatic in his excoriation of African leaders for the social ills in Africa. The trouble with Nigeria, he says, is "simply and squarely a failure of leadership" (Achebe, 1982). The marginalization of the African continent over the past three decades has been characterized by slower economic growth vis-a-vis other developing regions together with lower and less efficient investment levels. Subsequently, Claude Ake (1995) posits that "Most of Africa is not developing." This apt description of the decline in nearly all African countries underscores the depth of underdevelopment ravaging the people amidst a plethora of natural resources. While most African countries gained independence in the 1960s, the struggle to ensure national development and political stability remains a distant cry. In the words of Ake (1995), "Decades of efforts have yielded largely stagnation, regression or worse. The tragic consequences of this are increasingly clear: rising tide of poverty, decaying public utilities and infrastructures, social tensions and political turmoil, and now, premonition of inevitable drive into conflict and violence" (see, also, Kyambalesa, 2006:107). What is more, the annual Failed States Index (2010) indicates that the top twenty "most vulnerable" nations are resident in that continent.2 Little wonder, then, that the London-based The Economist magazine has dubbed Africa "the Hopeless Continent" (The Economist, 2000:15). …

On the development agenda

Abstract: This article is based on categories and analytical frameworks drawn up by Celso Furtado aiming to examine development, understood as the development of global cultural systems. Furtado also confers high priority to certain elements that hamper the development of specific cultural systems, giving rise to the so-called underdevelopment. The elements mentioned and their operation – also present in the ideas of several authors of Latin American structuralism – are considered in four major topics:

Democratization under assault: Criminal violence in posttransition Central America

Abstract: Why does Nicaragua have less violent crime than Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras? All these countries underwent political transitions in the 1990s, and most of them faced widespread internal conflicts during the 1980s. Many explanations point to the legacies of war, socioeconomic underdevelopment, neoliberal structural reforms, and a lingering culture of violence. However, these arguments do not fully explain why, despite economic reforms conducted throughout the region, warless Honduras and the wealthier countries of Guatemala and El Salvador are more ripped by crime than Nicaragua. This paper argues that public security reforms carried out during the political transitions shaped the ability of the new regimes to deal with crime. The persistence of violent entrepreneurs in the new security apparatuses, their relationship with new governing elites, and the role of civil society and the U.S. during the transitions, determined later success or failure in tackling crime in Central America.

Adult Illiteracy: The Root of African Underdevelopment

Abstract: Introduction African countries, without an exception, are generally categorized among "third world countries" which are characterized by underdevelopment of their human and natural resources and the poor quality of life of the majority of their citizenry. There is the general belief that education is an instrument for social, economic and political development. Evidence in support of this assertion can be found in the relationship between the level of educational development and the high standard of living in developed nations of the world, such as the United States of America, Britain, Canada and Japan, among others. They are industrialized, modern economics and democracies mainly because they have well-educated, enlightened, and skilled adult populations. Conversely, African countries remain underdeveloped due mainly to a large percentage of illiterates and unskilled worker force within the adult population. UNESCO World report (UNESCO 1991 and 1995) showed that the continents of Africa and Asia harboured the largest percentage of adult illiterates in the world. It is also in the two continents and South American that we found almost all the poor, underdeveloped nations. The main thrust of this paper is to show how Africa can step out of the stigma of underdevelopment to join the elites class of developed countries when it seriously tackles the problem of adult illiteracy. Surely many African governments have invested heavily to expand access to formal education and increased enrollments rates at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. However, although there exist laudable policies and programmes for adult and non-formal education with a major emphasis on the eradication, or at least reduction of adult illiteracy, there appears to be a growing gap between theory and practice, policy and implementation. Africa is a big continent with over 52 countries, so there is some risk in generalizations since there are glaring differences between countries, for example, between those in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as between Anglophone and Francophone, African Nations. The Dimensions of the dichotomy occur at the cultural, religious, educational, economic and political levels, and hence the countries are at different levels of underdevelopment. It is for these reasons that this paper will use the Nigerian situation as a case study. In some respects, Nigeria is a good sample because it is the largest African country with a population estimated at over 120 million. There is also great diversity among the people in terms of religion, ethnic groups with over 250 languages, and differences in stages of educational development. Indeed some states of the federation are officially classified as "educationally disadvantaged states" due to their having low enrollment ratios and high adult illiteracy rates. Nigerian policy in Adult and Non-formal education Every major educational policy or programme on education produced by the government of Nigeria has devoted some attention to the education of adults, nonformal education, and eradication of illiteracy. The constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 1999) included in section 18 on Education Objectives, the provision of free adult literacy programmes. In section 6 of the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004 edition), Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education was the subject matters. The Federal Ministry of Education in its Education Sector Status Report (FME 2004) examined in chapter 8 the progress made by the country in the implementation of policies and programmes on adult and non-formal education. To demonstrate how serious it was in the desire not only to reduce the rate of adult illiteracy in the country, but also to ensure that those adults who did not go beyond primary school education remain literate and improve themselves educationally, government enacted a law by Decree 17 of 1990 on the establishment of National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal education. …

Political Clientelism and Rural Development in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract: In spite of the universality of clientelism, it is often seen as a peculiar aspect of Third World politics, one which inevitably stifles development. This study examines clientelistic relationships in south-western Nigeria and their possible impact on rural development, with a special focus on Ibadan. It finds that rural clients attract the attention of the political class to promote the exchange of goods for loyalty through associations that afford clients a sort of cohesive power and a common front, the basis of their relevance in the political-clientelistic chain. This clientelistic chain also serves as the channel through which development projects are conceived and implemented. But since the projects provided only serve symbolic purposes, they easily collapse: clients may have the opportunity of changing patrons, but they remain subservient to the political/economic elite. Thus rural underdevelopment persists in spite of a continual inflow of development projects (and goods).

Capitalism, Globalisation and the Underdevelopment Process in Africa: History in Perpetuity

Abstract: Since the incorporation of the Third World nations into the world capitalist system, the underdevelopment process seems to have commenced through the use of liberal economic principles. In spite of the obvious pauperisation of these nations, it seems as if there is no alternative even when indigenous governments are in control of affairs. This paper attempts to show why the underdevelopment process has persisted with capitalism entrenched in the garb of globalisation. It suggests that the way out is for the developing world to control and own their means of survival without which the underdevelopment process shall continue. Of utmost significance however is the need to control the intellectual domain.

The prophetic witness of the church as an appropriate mode of public discourse in African societies

Abstract: A discussion on the prophetic witness of the church is relevant in many respects. Firstly, most African countries have embraced democracy, without defining its contents; hence, democracy practised in Africa varies from one country to another. Secondly, democracy, itself, has left unpredictable consequences in African societies, where its leaders have cherished what they gain from leadership, rather than thinking in terms of community development. Thirdly, many people have lost confidence in the church in times of misery. The need for a solution to social crisis has created room for alternative modes of public discourse that compete with the church’s prophetic voice of: ‘Thus says the Lord’. Fourthly, churches seem to have established a dichotomy between theology and societal realities. Fifthly, the church has, so far, concentrated most of its efforts on evangelising to the regular faithful who attend the Sunday service and other meetings and have rather neglected those on the streets. Lastly, ‘armchair sermons’, coupled with the effect of democracy seem to have moulded passive and expectant citizens, rather than challenge them to strive for a committed and responsible stewardship. These reasons, and others, account for the situation of misery and underdevelopment of African societies; hence, the need for the development of a ‘relevant theology’ that marches with African realities.

Food Aid and the Famine Relief Argument (Brief Return)

Abstract: Recent publications by Pogge (Global ethics: seminal essays. St. Paul: Paragon House 2008) and by Singer (The life you can save: acting now to end world poverty. New York: Random House 2009) have resuscitated a debate over the justifiability of famine relief between Singer and ecologist Garrett Hardin in the 1970s. Yet that debate concluded with a general recognition that (a) general considerations of development ethics presented more compelling ethical problems than famine relief; and (b) some form of development would be essential to avoiding the problems of growth noted by Hardin. Better than renewing the debate, we should recognize two points. First, food needs do indeed evoke a moral response that is more direct and compelling than the philosophical positions often generated to rationalize a duty to bring aid. As such the argument for feeding hungry people cannot be generalized into a paradigm for development ethics without distortions that undercut the morally valid elements in Singer’s original argument. Second, contrary to prevailing assumptions in present day development ethics, food aid and famine relief continue to be important priorities for international agencies, notably the World Food Program. Emergency food assistance, the nominal topic of Singer’s original article, thus is an important issue for agricultural as well as development ethics, though one that should indeed be seen as distinct from more complex duties to address the conditions of chronic poverty and underdevelopment.

Why the Beijing Consensus is a non-consensus: Implications for contemporary China-Africa relations

Abstract: When the United States emerged as the victorious nation in the Cold War the “Washington Consensus” became the only remaining credible sociopolitical model. With the financial crisis in 2008, continued African underdevelopment and China’s economic success, it lost this status again. The result is a welcome debate about a “China Model”, referring to the economic and political system that led to sustained growth in China, while many African countries continue to struggle with the effects of “structural adjustment” policies. While the term “Chinese Model” is misleading, because it implies a certain transferability of the Chinese experience, it is clear that some aspects of it are highly relevant for Africa.

Africa’s Industrialization Debate: A Critical Analysis

Abstract: In the article, the author examines the debates that have permeated Africa's quest to catch-up with the more developed countries of the North. It is noteworthy that since independence, Africa's industrialization process seemed to be a state-centric affair. In other words, the state has been the central player in Africa's industrialization process. At independence, of course, many factors favored or called for state dominance as well as state-driven industrialization process. Yet a bad political culture, weak political and social institutions, poor leadership and bad governance seem to have contributed to this failure from within. However, the fact still remains that at the beginning of the 21 st century, African countries do hold a lot of potential in terms of human and material resources that would enable them compete favorably with the more industrialized countries of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Key words: Industrialization, Africa, politics, underdevelopment