IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v39y2011i7p1155-1165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Paradox of State Retrenchment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Micro-Level Experience of Public Social Service Provision

Author

Listed:
  • MacLean, Lauren M.

Abstract

Summary Over the past 30 years in Africa, neoliberal economic reform has meant a major retrenchment of the state provision of health and education with paradoxical local effects. Based on an analysis of 2005 Afrobarometer data, the study finds that the rural poor are more likely to use public schools and clinics than the urban, better-off. The data suggest that a two-tiered social service system now exists across many African countries where the rural poor may have little choice but to use public social services while the urban, better-off choose to pay for private alternatives. The author argues that concerns about ensuring absolute levels of access have obscured attention to the micro-experience and quality of social service delivery.

Suggested Citation

  • MacLean, Lauren M., 2011. "The Paradox of State Retrenchment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Micro-Level Experience of Public Social Service Provision," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1155-1165, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:1155-1165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1000224X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anis A. Dani & Arjan de Haan, 2008. "Inclusive States : Social Policy and Structural Inequalities," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6409.
    2. Matthew Singer & Christopher Anderson, 2008. "The Sensitive Left and the Impervious Right: Multilevel Models and the Politics of Inequality, Ideology, and Legitimacy in Europe," LIS Working papers 477, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    4. Bowers, Jake & Drake, Katherine W., 2005. "EDA for HLM: Visualization when Probabilistic Inference Fails," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 301-326.
    5. Sahn,David E. & Dorosh,Paul A. & Younger,Stephen D., 1999. "Structural Adjustment Reconsidered," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521665131, October.
    6. Paul Collier & Jan Willem Gunning, 1999. "Why Has Africa Grown Slowly?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    7. Selden, Thomas M. & Wasylenko, Michael J., 1992. "Benefit incidence analysis in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1015, The World Bank.
    8. Rudra, Nita, 2002. "Globalization and the Decline of the Welfare State in Less-Developed Countries," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 411-445, April.
    9. Gough,Ian & Wood,Geof & Barrientos,Armando & Bevan,Philippa & Davis,Peter & Room,Graham, 2004. "Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521834193, October.
    10. Luc De Wulf, 1975. "Fiscal Incidence Studies in Developing Countries: Survey and Critique (Etude sur l'incidence de la politique budgétaire dans les pays en voie de développement: examen analytique et critique) (Estudi," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 61-131, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Austin, Kelly F. & DeScisciolo, Cristina & Samuelsen, Lene, 2016. "The Failures of Privatization: A Comparative Investigation of Tuberculosis Rates and the Structure of Healthcare in Less-Developed Nations, 1995–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 450-460.
    2. Jacob Assa & Cecilia Calderon, 2020. "Privatization and Pandemic: A Cross-Country Analysis of COVID-19 Rates and Health-Care Financing Structures," Working Papers 2008, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arjan de Haan, 2013. "The Social Policies of Emerging Economies: Growth and Welfare in China and India," Working Papers 110, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    2. Ashraf, Ayesha, 2015. "The Effects of Greenfield FDI and Cross-Border M&As on Government Size," MPRA Paper 65061, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Barrientos, Armando, 2011. "On the Distributional Implications of Social Protection Reforms in Latin America," WIDER Working Paper Series 069, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Jung-In Jo & Hyun Jin Choi, 2019. "Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 348-368, December.
    5. Mehmet Maksud Onal & John K. Ashton, 2021. "Is the Journey more Important than the Destination? EU Accession and Corporate Governance and Performance of Banks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1516-1535, November.
    6. Kapeliushnikov, Rostislav & Kuznetsov, Andrei & Demina, Natalia & Kuznetsova, Olga, 2013. "Threats to security of property rights in a transition economy: An empirical perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 245-264.
    7. Rakesh Sambharya & Martina Musteen, 2014. "Institutional environment and entrepreneurship: An empirical study across countries," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 314-330, December.
    8. Kumar, Sanjesh & Singh, Baljeet, 2019. "Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-86.
    9. Christoph M. Schmidt & Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Wie geht es uns? Die W3-Indikatoren für eine neue Wohlstandsmessung," RWI Positionen, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, pages 16, 03.
    10. Hadzi-Vaskov Metodij & Pienknagura Samuel & Ricci Luca Antonio, 2023. "The Macroeconomic Impact of Social Unrest," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(2), pages 917-958, June.
    11. Lochner, Stefan & Dieckhöner, Caroline, 2012. "Civil unrest in North Africa—Risks for natural gas supply?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 167-175.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Governance, capital flight and industrialisation in Africa," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.
    13. Myint Moe Chit, 2018. "Political openness and the growth of small and medium enterprises: empirical evidence from transition economies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 781-804, September.
    14. Haichao Fan & Xiang Gao, 2017. "Domestic Creditor Rights and External Private Debt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2410-2440, November.
    15. Imam, M. & Jamasb, T. & Llorca, M. & Llorca, M., 2018. "Power Sector Reform and Corruption: Evidence from Electricity Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1801, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    16. Chang Pao-Li, 2014. "Complementarity in Institutional Quality in Bilateral FDI Flows," Working Papers 20-2014, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    17. Ingo Geishecker & Philipp J. H. Schröder & Allan S⊘rensen, 2019. "One‐off export events," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 93-131, February.
    18. Josef C. Brada & Ichiro Iwasaki, 2022. "The Effect of Target-Country Institutions on Cross-Border Merger and Acquisition Activity: A Quantitative Literature Survey," Econometric Research in Finance, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, vol. 7(1), pages 1-70.
    19. Patel, Dev & Sandefur, Justin & Subramanian, Arvind, 2021. "The new era of unconditional convergence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    20. Gamberger, Dragan & Smuc, Tomislav, 2013. "Good governance problems and recent financial crises in some EU countries," Economics Discussion Papers 2013-39, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:1155-1165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.