Global Public Policy Paradigms and the Socio-Economic Transformation Trajectories of Africa

This chapter provides an analytical discussion of Africa's development trajectories in the postcolonial era in the context of major ideational paradigms. It shows that Africa's place in the changing global order is partly manifested in how its socio-economic transformation processes have been shaped by an interface of ideas inspired by Keynesian modernization ideas in the early postcolonial era (the 1950s to 1970s), and later by an ideational paradigm based on neoliberal ethos since the 1980s. Framing radical policy shifts in African countries within the context of policy paradigm shades light on the epistemic foundations of policies promoted and adopted in Africa over time. In addition, such a framing also provides a conceptual lens within which to situate policy successes and failures, as well as the transitional impediments encountered in the reform processes. To move beyond the conceptual mapping of the paradigms and illustrate the forms in which they were manifested, the chapter also drew on examples from few countries to discuss how both Keynesian modernization and neoliberalism were activated in African countries.