Leadership and governance imperatives in a developmental state : the debate for a public policy dialogue

Abstract

The importance of this debate sets out to explore and examine current arguments for and against the developmental state in Africa and globally. A fundamental case for the developmental state is the pursuit of an interventionist agenda and in some cases, orchestrated economic policies as against absolute neo-liberalist and even protectionist policies. However, in a highly globalised and utilitarian world, the gains of the developmental state examples of the Asian Tigers are considered as difficult to replicate in other developing regions like Africa by public governance scholars and global economic policy watchers. Thus, the development arena is pervaded with Western prescribed conditions for aid such as a free market economy and democracy. The developmental state is not a new idea in post colonial African governance set ups. The pro-poor stance of local economic development policies, government infrastructural expansion programmes, social welfare grant policies, as well as employment and business equity policies show a level of government intervention in the redistribution of wealth and social justice. Whether these policies have translated into measurable strides in terms of development indicators is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, this article will explore the character of the developmental state as extracted from some recent successes and try to isolate core issues that can be factored into an African policy agenda and development environment.