Why and how politics in Africa gets in the way of policy implementation

Professor Göran Hyden
Department of Political Science
University of Florida

Development has been largely been viewed through a policy lens with politics being treated, initially as non-relevant and later as a complicating factor that needs to be understood. Political economy studies, however, have relied more on theories and models dictated by donor interests. The result is that much of politics in African countries is not grasped or incorporated into political economy analysis.

This lecture will highlight the differences that exist in conceptions of power between donors and African actors and demonstrate how the Africa social and political realities tend to interfere with the way development policies are implemented. The presentation will include an examination of the principal-agent model, the prisoner´s dilemma, and the logic of collective action as used in international development discourse.

Free and open for all, as all our events

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Photo: Scallop Holden