Olopade chapter 3 - Fail States Flashcards
Why African Governments Hasn't Worked
Somaliland overview
- Independently controlled part of Somalia with their own parliaments, shillings, security force, YET missing international recognition.
- With that being said, still missing certain basic capacities and infrastructure.
- Their independency and growth stems from nationalism - born out of hardship (constrained resources) and unite together as they cannot lean on international support
- Also kept clan structure existing before colonial times
- “Kanju achievement in shape of state dysfunction” - a comparatively functional government of and by its people (specifically compared to rest of Somalia)
Sources of capital for developing countries
- Foreign assistance
- Foreign loans
3.Foreign investment
Hard/impossible to acquire for internationally unrecognised territories (Somaliland e.g)
Somalia overview
- Built on foreign diplomatic “whirlpools”
- Has had 12 transitional governments since 1990s, formed in Kenya or generally outside country
- Weakest central government in Africa
State-weakness in African countries
- Non-stable state leads to irritation over inspiration amongst citizens
- Non-finished projects and other basic requirements for a govt is lacking such as providing its people with needs (bare minimum for survival)
Swaziland mention Yebo babe!
Parliaments make 40 times the AVERAGEincome for population
Angola
1% of oil-soaked budget goes to public education and welfare
Corruption
Anything from police officers on highways to judicial institutions..
Meaning behind “fail” states
Stemming from the meme “fail!” as if someone does something stupid that just should not happen
examples:
- your work permit got “lost” and you must pay to get it again
- going to uni to find its on a 9-month strike
- incoming landing of a place and the power is out
- refused business start for writing proposition in blue ink instead of black
THERESULT:
You are on your own, your state does not have your back.
The African Map
1) Hardly reflects tribes and languages on the continent
2) 1884 Berlin Conference: enshrined regional borders splitting tribes and kingdoms or combined others arbitrarily (randomly)
3) 1892: Organization of African Unity declared these colonial borders to live forever
4) 73% households in Africa do not speak the official language of their country due to the existing tribal diversity
5) Senegal/Gambia/Guinea-Bissau used to be united in cultural similarities but French/Portuguese/British colonisation left them as three distinct states with distinct languages
“Extractive” institutions
Multiple illegitimate or low-legitimized states has made decisions irrelevant to economic and social development so their leaders can ensure their continued power - the result is becoming institutions where other countries can extract their values from them
Examples of extractive institutions
- Congo through Joseph Mobutu:
Former president in Congo
(Zaire)
who gave mining profits to his
supporters and jailed/killed
oppositions - Senegal through Siaka Stevens
Nationalized diamond industry
through yap only. Favored
mining contracts to his allies to
get voter support. Led to rebel
groups and smuggling which
ended up destroying the
country.
National leaders adopting the capitalist mindset of profit = failure
African National Congress (ANC)in South Africa
Led by Nelson Mandela to achieve the end of apartheid in 1994. Yet long term change was not on the contract, and Dutch colonizers were replaced by an ethnic South African oligarchy. Severe differences between white prosperity and black townships across the country.
Two nxa quotes
“Western preference for political and economic formalism has allowed fail states to pantomime liberal democracy without necessarily achieving progress”
“When institutions are broken, playing by their rules become a laughable proposition”
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), critique
1) Used as a core accounting standard in claiming that Africa is growing fast, yet ignores efficiency and unequal access to resources.
2) Tied to state capital - flattens out variations among rural, urban and peri-urban - throws a whole country under one unit (ignores internal differences, kind of like Wolf’s argument)
