The dominant developmental approach in Africa over the past twenty
years has been to advocate the role of markets and the private sector in
restoring economic growth. Recent thinking has also stressed the need
for “ownership” of economic reform by the populations of developing
countries, particularly the business community. This book studies the
business–government interactions of four African countries: Ghana,
Zambia, South Africa, and Mauritius. Employing a historical institutionalist
approach, Antoinette Handley considers why and how business in
South Africa and Mauritius has developed the capacity to constructively
contest the making of economic policy while, conversely, business in
Zambia and Ghana has struggled to develop any autonomous political
capacity. Paying close attention to the mutually constitutive interactions
between business and the state, Handley considers the role of timing and
how ethnicized and racialized identities can affect these interactions in
profound and consequential ways.
ANTOINETTE HANDLEY is Assistant Professor in the Department of
Political Science at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include
policy-making and economic reform in developing countries, business–
government relations, and HIV/AIDS and the political economies of Africa.
She has published articles in the Journal of Modern African Studies,
Current History, and the Canadian Journal of African Studies.