| | The Development of Capitalism in Africa is an ambitious book. In 133 pages of text John Sender and Sheila Smith seek to overturn conventional explanations about 'the persistence of poverty and suffering' (p.1) in sub-Saharan Africa. These explanations they divide into two parts. Firstly, there is the explanation 'based upon an anti-state, free market analysis' which' attributes economic failure to the misallocation of resources created by state intervention and interference with the play of market forces' (p.110). Sender and Smith argue that this analysis' ignore(s) the overwhelming historical evidence concerning the central role of the state in all late-industrialising countries' (p. 130). At best, this analysis 'is pessimistic about the prospects for rapid capitalist development and argues that the form taken by capitalism in Africa is 'distorted' and structurally constrained by imperialism' (p.131); at worst, the analysis may rest on the premise that 'capitalist development in developing countries is impossible' (p.130). Sender and Smith argue that this explanation, in either form, lacks 'empirical support or logical coherence' (p.127) and only serves to direct attention 'towards foreign scapegoats and away from domestic class struggles, the absence of debate on realistic economic strategy, and a weakening of the prospects for progressive class forces' (p.110). |
