Number of results to display per page
Search Results
32. What aid should and shouldn't do in order to support private sector development
- Author:
- Lindsay Whitfield
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- If foreign aid is to have a greater impact on reducing poverty in poor countries in a sustainable manner, then it needs to focus more on economic cooperation and changing productive structures, and to move away from a focus on social sectors and subsidizing the consumption of poor people.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
33. Competitive Clientelism, Easy Financing and Weak Capitalists: The Contemporary Political Settlement in Ghana
- Author:
- Lindsay Whitfield
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Ghana has exhibited rather strong economic growth since the 1980s, but little transformation of the productive structure of its economy. The paper argues that ruling elites' policy choices are shaped by their political survival strategies. In turn, these strategies are shaped by (1) the characteristics of the ruling coalitions, which include a high degree of vulnerability in power, strong lower-level factions of the ruling coalition, and a substantial amount of fragmentation among the higher factions of the ruling coalition; (2) the weak capabilities and political influence of the nascent productive capitalists; and (3) easy access to financing for the state and the ruling coalition from foreign aid, mining and cocoa bean exports. As a result, ruling elites' policy actions did not prioritize the development of new productive sectors (or upgrading of old ones), but were geared towards delivering benefits to the higher and lower levels of the ruling coalition, as well as delivering a small amount of visible goods and services to as much of the population as possible in an effort to 'swing' voters their way at election time. Neither of these political survival strategies resulted in significant productive sector investments.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Politics, Social Stratification, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
34. Growth without Economic Transformation: Economic Impacts of Ghana's Political Settlement
- Author:
- Lindsay Whitfield
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Since the Fourth Republic was inaugurated in 1993, politics in Ghana has been increasingly characterized by competitive clientelism. Ruling coalitions are characterized by a high degree of vulnerability in power due to a strong opposition party, by strong lower-level factions within the ruling coalition due to their importance in winning elections, and by a high degree of fragmentation among the ruling elite. These characteristics, combined with a weak domestic capitalist class and high inflows of foreign aid, have led the ruling elites across political parties to pursue and implement policies that have a short time horizon, that do not significantly shift the allocation of resources towards building productive sectors, and which are often plagued by problems of enforcement. The results have led to growth without economic transformation. In particular, the country has witnessed recurrent macroeconomic instability, a haphazard process of privatization of state-owned enterprises, and no serious attempt to build up productive sectors outside of cocoa and gold.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, Economics, Politics, Social Stratification, Foreign Aid, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
35. Political Challenges to Developing Non-Traditional Exports in Ghana: The Case of Horticulture Exports
- Author:
- Lindsay Whitfield
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The nascent Ghanaian horticulture export sector, which emerged in the mid-1980s, has been ignored by ruling elites, especially after the return to multiparty democracy in 1993. Ruling elites across the two party governments between 1993 and 2008 did not actively pursue initiatives to support the industry. Without sustained political support, the types of public-private coordination of actions and investments needed to help the sector expand and upgrade were not forthcoming in an effective and timely manner. This private sector-driven non-traditional export sector constitutes a neglected opportunity for export diversification and building a new agro-industry, and also highlights some of the factors explaining why the country's economy was still dependent on the traditional exports of cocoa and gold by the close of the 2000s. The political challenges to changing the productive structure in Ghana can be found in the characteristics of ruling coalitions–vulnerability of the ruling elite in power, the high fragmentation within ruling coalitions, and their existing sources of and strategies for financing the state and the ruling coalition, combined with the country's existing economic structure as well as the size and capabilities of domestic capitalists. The characteristics of ruling coalitions in Ghana shaped the incentives facing ruling elites such that the ruling elites were not sufficiently compelled to support new productive sectors, such as horticulture export, which did not (yet) provide substantial revenues.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Social Stratification, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
36. Popular Nationalism in China and the Sino-Japanese Relationship: The Conflict in the East China Sea
- Author:
- Erik Beukel
- Publication Date:
- 02-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Sino-Japanese relationship is a highly complex one, marked both by Japan's aggressive wars from the 1930s on and the present economic interdependence between the two countries. Focusing on the role of the territorial conflict in the East China Sea, this DIIS Report considers how China's leaders handle anti-Japanese nationalism by adopting a Janusian stance and pursuing both China's basic interest in close economic relations with Japan and also domestic stability. After a review of Chinese and Japanese sovereignty claims in the area and of the rise of nationalism since the early 1980s, four crises over the East China Sea are examined to identify the character of and changes in China's policy. For the last ten years China's leaders have attempted to conduct a more pragmatic policy towards Japan and evade the pernicious shadow of history. But this policy faces critical problems both in a growing popular nationalism in China and in the Japanese government's lack of willingness to restrain their own nationalists and the absence of legal possibilities for them to do so.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Economics, and Bilateral Relations
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Israel, and Asia
37. Developing Technological Capabilities in Agro-Industry: Ghana's experience with fresh pinapple exports in comparative perspective
- Author:
- Lindsay Whitfield
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The economic policy agenda which promoted a non-interventionist state, trade openness, deregulation, liberalization and privatization as the formula for unleashing private sector productive forces in developing countries is discredited. The economic record of the past decades does not support this theory. Former proponents of the agenda acknowledge that the 'supply side' response of the private sector, especially in African countries, has not been what was expected in reaction to these economic reforms. Consensus is building on the need for industrial policy, and the debate is over what kinds of state interventions are likely to help build the private sector. Thus, the time is ripe for an evidence-based discussion of what is 'private sector development' in Africa, and how it promote it. In order to move the debate forward, we need more analyses of how actual existing industries are created, expanded and remain competitive in the contemporary global economic context.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Economics, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- Africa
38. The financial crisis and lower income countries: A preliminary synthesis of findings on impacts, responses and lessons
- Author:
- Sam Jones
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper synthesizes findings from a range of studies presented at a recent conference on the financial crisis held at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Focusing on low and lower-middle income countries, the studies explore the impacts, responses and initial lessons of the crisis. The complex and diverse nature of these impacts at both the aggregate and household levels are highlighted, as is the need to reconsider conventional policy advice. Considerations for future research directions are also presented.
- Topic:
- Economics, Third World, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
39. Cargo Cult in Africa: Remittances and the State in Tanzania
- Author:
- Peter Hansen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines remittance and diaspora policy formation in Tanzania as cargo cult. Both migration-development policy formation and cargo cults express the belief in the miraculous transformation of the local by the arrival of wealth emanating from the outside. The paper is based on ethnographic research in Dares Salaam, and adds to our understanding of the links between migration and development in Tanzania, and to our understanding of the relationship between remittances and the state, where the underlying cultural values, ideas and imaginaries expressed in remittance policies and thinking have been ignored.
- Topic:
- Development and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Tanzania
40. Recurrent cost boom threathens Millennium Development Goals
- Author:
- Ole Therkildsen
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- At the September 2010 UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals the Secretary-General stressed that tremendous progress in school enrolment, disease control and access to clean water had been achieved. This policy brief addresses a question that he did not talk about. How shall the achievements in relation to the goals be sustained beyond January 1, 2016?
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Education, Health, Poverty, and Water
- Political Geography:
- United Nations