Economies after colonialism : Ghana and the struggle for power / Lindsay Whitfield (Roskilde University).

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitfield, Lindsay, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--Ghana.

Economic development.

Commerce.

Economic conditions.

Economic policy.

Ghana--Economic policy--21st century.

Ghana.

Ghana--Economic conditions--21st century.

Ghana--Commerce.

Economic history.

Physical Description:

xv, 364 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

"Despite Ghana's strong democratic track record in recent decades, the economy remains underdeveloped. Industrial policies are necessary to transform the colonial trading economy that Ghana inherited at independence, but successive governments have been unwilling or unable to implement them. In this highly original interpretation, supported by new empirical material, Lindsay Whitfield exposes the reasons for why the Ghanaian economy remains underdeveloped and sets her theory in the wider African context. She offers a new way of thinking about the political economy of Africa that charts a clear path away from defining Africa in terms of neopatrimonial politics and that provides new conceptual tools for addressing what kind of business-state relations are necessary to drive economic development. As a study of Ghana that addresses both the economy and politics from early colonialism to the present day, this is a must-read for any student or scholar interested in the political economy of development in Africa"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book is about economic development in Ghana. As the great economist Alice Amsden put it, development entails moving the economy away from being a set of assets based on primary products exploited by unskilled labour toward an economy built on knowledge-based assets exploited by skilled labour. Most African countries have struggled to achieve a greater degree of economic development. In fact, few developing countries since the breakup of colonial empires and the emergence of new countries in the twentieth century have achieved significant economic development, and most of them are in Asia"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Ghanaian political economy and the politics of industrial policy; 2. Origins of competitive clientelism and weak domestic capitalists; 3. Return to competitive clientelism in the fourth republic; 4. Economic growth, but maintaining the colonial trading economy; 5. Challenges to diversifying exports: accessing global markets and learning to learn; 6. Challenges to modernizing agro-processing: struggles over inputs, organizing smallholders, and enforcing contracts; 7. NPP government and the not so 'Golden Age of Business'; 8. NDC II Government and managing the new oil wealth.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 338-357) and index.

ISBN:

9781108426145

110842614X

OCLC:

1013958223