The Politics of Economic Restructuring and Democracy in Africa (review)

This book explores the indirect impact of structural adjustment on democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s. The author believes the effects of structural adjustment are transmitted to democratization through their impact on economic growth and the growth of civil society. The basic feature of structural adjustment programs has been the conditions andausterity measures they impose on countries desiring funding for economic stabilization. These included market liberalization, privatization of state enterprises, reduction of public sector investment, trade reforms (especially promotion of exports and dismantling of tariff barriers), devaluation of the domestic currency, removal of subsidies on basic necessities and price controls, and cutting back on spending on social services such as education and health.

Iheduru's major findings are that structural adjustment resulted in insignificant and sporadic economic growth. Most African countries recorded negative or very small economic growth in the 1990s, although Iheduru thinks that in the long run growth effects might begin to show. It is doubtful that the growth capacities of the African economies could be enhanced by programs that reduce expenditures on education, health, and other infrastructural sectors that need to be developed. Can the private sector develop these sectors? For the author, "The most intriguing finding of this study is that structural adjustment leads to the evolution of civil society. . . . [T]hrough activating civil society, structural adjustment also leads to democratization. [But] structural adjustment by itself would not lead to democratization until it has generated the sensitivities that drive people into groups as a means of obtaining and defending their interests in a political system" (113).

Indeed, structural adjustment could have led to the growth of civil society and a prospect for democratization. But it is probable that the protest groups that grew out of the prolonged economic hardship had a major role in the movement for multi-partism in the 1990s. These protest groups were led by well-educated politicians, government officials, and soldiers who came to power with the support of the large urban poor. Whether the groups were democrats committed to building a strong civil society or opportunists looking out only for themselves will not be clear until democratization really takes root. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the democratization movement in Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War, and the tying of foreign aid to democratization contributed to the movement for multi-partism in Africa.

According to Iheduru, "African countries chose to implement structural adjustmentprograms because of the difficulties arising from poor financial and economic management of their economies"(105). In fact, African countries did not choose to implement these policies. Poor financial and economic management was not the main cause of the deterioration of the state of African economies. African leaders accepted what the IMF and the World Bank told them to do in order to get the resources needed to address the economic crisis their countries faced. Even if the leaders were not convinced of the soundness of the conditions, they had to agree to the terms in order to obtain the financial support. Hence, African countries did not adopt these measures "as the best alternative to development or to turning around a problematic economy" (80).

The underlying problem with the African economies lies in the nature of the colonial economies. However well the colonial economies are managed, their fundamental deficiencies will surface from time to time until these economies are transformed.

The post-Second World War booms masked these problems. The high demand in the industrial economies generated by postwar reconstruction and high aggregate demand policies and wars ensured high export earnings for African countries. The problems of the African economies deepened following the energy crisis of the early 1970s as petroleum prices and industrial imports rose while African export earnings fell sharply. These problems were worsened by...