The Anatomy of Emerging African Capitalist States

The author argues that the doctrine of state supremacy in Africa suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the collapse of export prices of African commodities in the late seventies, which undermined the ability of governments to support their expanded public sector. The author observes that African nationalists turned advocates of the Stalinist-Marxist philosophy of socialist state expansion in pursuit of the principle objective of consolidating political power contingently synergized by hysterical one party politics, the state bureaucracy and government policy of seeking comprehensive ownership of the means of production and centralized management of the economy. In reality, the nationalist state machinery subjugated the citizens to its inexorably capricious dictates of political economy, which served to limit the scope for private enterprise. The author presents a new doctrine of ‘African Capitalist States’ advancing the view of Adam Smith about reduced size and role of the public sector, market liberalization financial liberalisation and Exchange rate liberalization. The new ‘African Capitalist States’ are also dismantling protective discriminatory tariffs and moving towards a freer economy.