Ruling Ideas and Social Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Assessment of Nationalist, Keynesian and Neoliberal Paradigms

This chapter identifies and evaluates the paradigms that have shaped social policy in post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is axiomatic that the shifting mainstream of development thought and policy advice shaped much of SSA’s post-colonial social policy and social development. Adelman (2001) made the same point thus: No area of economics has experienced as many abrupt changes in its leading paradigm since World War II as has economic development. The twists and turns in development economics have had profound implications for development policy. Specifically, the dominant development model has determined policy prescription in the economy, the degree of government intervention, the form and direction of intervention, and the nature of government-market interactions. The core paradigms at the root of the shifting mainstream can be grouped into macroeconomic (the Keynesian revolution, the neoclassical synthesis and the counter-revolution) and microeconomic (equilibrium theory, welfare theory, information economics, and so on).