Institutions, Party Politics, and Private Sector Development in Africa

What: "Institutions, Party Politics, and Private Sector Development in Africa" lecture by Anne Pitcher

When: Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM  

Where: 620 Library Place, Conference Room Evanston, IL 60201

For more information please contact Kate Dargis at 847-491-7323 or african-studies@northwestern.edu.

 

Professor Anne Pitcher from the University of Michigan will be holding a lecture on October 23rd discussing, "Institutions, Party Politics, and Private Sector Development in Africa." Drawing on the theory developed in her recent book, Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa's Democracies, Anne Pitcher offers an explanation for the different outcomes of neoliberal economic reforms adopted by African countries over the last two decades. Pitcher argues that patterns of private sector development depend not only on the kinds of institutional arrangements adopted by states in order to create or expand their private sectors, but also on the nature of party system competition and the quality of democracy in particular countries. After discussing the institutional choices made by African governments to create or expand their private sectors, the lecture will demonstrate how party politics shaped the privatization process in Mozambique and Zambia.