Wallace G. Mills Hist. 317 14 Modernisation
Modernisation Problems in Independent Africa.
- the readings in Historical Problems of Imperial Africa Problem VI, pp. 267-317 contain additional views.
- independence was achieved amid great expectations and optimism. The time seemed propitious; Ghana was the big example. Ghana prospered, its trade was up, government revenues were up, and there seemed scope and resources for modernisation. There was even an accummulated surplus.
- that was deceiving. During the 1950s, the Korean War plus the great economic expansion in North America created buoyant prices for commodities. Ghana did well from cocoa and peanuts especially; a number of other African areas also benefitted. The Eisenhower government’s efforts to reduce inflation brought on a recession. While the recession only lasted for 2 or 3 years, it began a prolonged period of low commodity prices in products such as: cocoa, coffee, peanuts, etc.
- as a result, shortly after independence in Ghana and simultaneous with independence for many African countries, serious economic problems were beginning, problems which had devastating effects on the attempts to modernise. While many Marxist scholars have tended to imply that there was a kind of conspiracy among ‘capitalist’ countries to depress prices in these commodities, the real problem was that quite a few unindustrialised countries were producing the same products and there was over-supply for prolonged periods. While there is difference of opinion about the causes of the depressed prices, there is little about the effects of the low prices.
The Idea of the nation/state
- the modern world is based, for better or worse, upon the idea of the nation/state and the acceptance of this idea. It is true that political arrangements and structures include and are buttressed by institutions of force to sustain them, but for long term viability there has to be a widespread acceptance of the underlying structures of the state, whatever form they might take—monarchy, republic, democracy or autocracy. This does not mean that most people have to like or be content with the particular individual or regime which is dominant.
- moreover, the emergence of the nation/state coincides with industrialisation and there seems to be a connection, although I think the relationship is very complex.
- industrialisation enlarges the scale of activity and interaction—worldwide nowadays. Industrialisation transforms society from being predominantly agrarian to predominantly urban.
- the idea of the ‘nation’ can be used to unify and build a larger state (as in Germany and Italy in the 19th C), but it can also be used to divide and destroy states (e.g., Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia; the outcome is still not 100% certain in Canada).
- the western educated elites in Africa who took control from the colonial governments not only accepted the idea, but had used the idea as a major ingredient in their demands for independence in conjunction with the idea of ‘self-determination’; that is, the demand of African nationalism was to replace white rule with African rule within the political frameworks and boundaries established by colonialism.
- the term and concept of ‘self-determination’ can be used for a variety of purposes.
- it is not surprising that Africans should do so as the nation/state is used everywhere and no one has put forward a viable alternative. Communists have frequently condemned nation/states as a means by which capitalists exploit and manipulate the masses, but in practice they have always ended up adopting the nation/state as well.
- as we noted earlier, Nkrumah and other Pan Africanists had warned against the dangers and excesses of nation/states and tried various experiments; e.g., there have been attempts to solve problems of internal unity by moving to a larger, more comprehensive entity. There have been no significant successes.
- in spite of frequent denunciations of colonial powers for the creation of boundaries that often had no logic in economic, geographical or ethnic terms, the successors in independent Africa have always demanded the maintenance of colonial boundaries as a minimum; no one has been willing to give up territory in order to rectify anomilies or even to reunite peoples divided by arbitrary boundaries erected by the imperial powers.
- African leaders recognised that what they had inherited was a state and that they needed to build national identity and national loyalty in populations that were frequently heterogeneous in ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is normally a long term process; even after hundreds of years, there is some talk about separation among Bretons in France and many Basques still are not reconcilled to Spain.
- thus, in political terms, modernisation involves achievement of a coherent nation/state. This is usually seen as a prerequisite for modernisation in economic terms.
- modernisation also includes the idea of ‘economic development’. Different definitions are often put forward to the latter. Sometimes, scientific and technological achievements are taken as indications; building atomic bombs or space rockets were taken to mean the USSR and China were highly ‘developed’ even though standards of living for most people remained low in both countries. At a crude level, per capita GDP is used as a means to measure ‘development’; it indicates to what degree technology has been incorporated into enhancing economic output. On the other hand, some people feel that ‘modernisation’ should be more related to standards of living and even quality of life. In this context, per capita GDP is inadequate and a variety of other indicators should be used (life expectancy, infant mortality, education levels, etc.).
- although Sékou Touré (the leader in Guinea) told De Gaulle in 1958, “We prefer liberty with poverty to slavery with wealth,” most leaders in the independence movements had promised that independence would bring greater material well being. “Why should white men have all the cars, big homes, etc.” It was usually argued that colonialism was causing the wealth to be syphoned off from Africa and that the end of colonialism would halt the process. In fact, there were frequently extremely high expectations about how soon and how much wealth would be coming to individual Africans.
National Integration
- in maintaining the nation/state, ethnic and other diversity is not necessarily a barrier to national integration. Most modern nation/states have some diversity (or even quite a lot) requiring a substantial amount of accommodation. This is true, not just of immigrant countries such as Canada and the US; there are Scots and Welsh in the United Kingdom, there are Flemish and Walloons in Belgium, and Switzerland has a variety of ethnic groups. These examples show a wide variety of approaches that can be used. Most have long histories (not always peaceful) in developing national integration; some have been helped substantially by outside enemies or at least perceived opponents (the Swiss and Canada to some degree—often one of the things that we agree most about is that we are not Americans and don’t want to be!)
- one approach is the use of an ‘ethnic core’; if one ethnic group is very large relative to others, it may be used as a core to build the nation/state around. In effect, this was used in France with the Isle de France as the core and gradually (over centuries) assimilation pressures reduced the differences; the English provided the core for the UK.
- this has not proved feasible in Africa and attempts to use it can produce sharp reactions.
- another approach is to use some transcendent idea or religion as a unifier; in North Africa, the Pan Arab idea and Islam have sometimes been of use in trying to build national integration; however, divisions within Islam are creating serious problems in a number of states.
- moreover, the attempt to use these in the Sudan has produced over 30 years of civil war with the non-Islamic southerners resisting domination by the Islamic government of the north.
- cultural and linguistic assimilation take time and a lot of interaction. Some scholars have pointed to evidence which they believe indicates that this is happening to some degree.
- e.g., Swahili has been spreading as a lingua franca throughout east Africa; in West Africa, Creole and pidgin English have been developing and spreading to fulfill this role in the former French and British colonies, respectively. Rather than giving preference to one of the local languages, use of an outside language can often avoid problems and resistance (English serves this way to a large extent in India).
- voting systems often intensify ethnic problems as politicians try to build up their political base by mobilizing support on an ethnic basis.
- the concept ‘nation’ has a variety of very different meanings. The one that a great many people can understand and respond to most readily and most emotionally is the ethnic group or ‘tribe’. It is much harder to get people to identify with a larger, more transcendent entity which incorporates several ethnic groups. Thus, since independence, ethnic secessionist movements have had significant impacts in Sudan, Eritrians in Ethiopia, Somalis in Ethiopian and Kenya, Ibo in Nigeria, etc.
- in trying to apply the concept of modernisation, it seems that nation-building and economic development are linked; both are necessary and they tend to reenforce each other. Economic development requires a stable political environment; without economic improvements to give hope, it is difficult to foster satisfaction with or acceptance of the political arrangements.
- while there are certainly no universally agreed upon criteria to define political and economic modernisation, there is considerable support for the following as starting points and as a listing of trends to look for. Those scholars who specialise in studies of modernisation would go much more deeply and more specifically.
- political modernisation involves and includes the following:
- increasing centralisation of power;
- increasing participation in political processes;
- greater differentiation and specialisation of political institutions.
- economic modernisation involves and includes the following:
- increasing per capita income;
- greater equalisation of income
- declining unemployment;
- greater integration into a national economic system.
- it is argued that African states since independence have not been very successful in achieving most of these trends. Why this is so has been the subject of a good deal of debate and a variety of problems and causes have been advanced by way of explanation.
Barriers or Problems to achieving Political and/or Economic Modernisation
1. Conflict in goals—e.g., immediate demands for higher standards of living may conflict with long term plans for solid economic growth and more diversified development.
- leaders of independence movements made glowing promises to their followers about the benefits of independence. Time after time, foreign reporters who were on hand to report on independence day ceremonies and celebrations noted that when they questioned people about why they were excited about independence, the people told them that it was because they were all going to rich like white people were. Thus, there were enormous and unrealistic expectations.
- as a result, there was a high demand for expensive consumer goods (transistor radios, cars, TVs VCRs, etc.) almost of all of which are imported. Thus, the proceeds of exporting commodities and minerals have mostly been spent on consumer goods rather than invested for development; this is true of much aid money as well. There has been very little entrepreneurial capital generated.
2. Exclusion or attempted exclusion of entire groups
- some of this has been ethnic and religious; these efforts have immediate and profound effects politically. The effects are seen in many ethnic conflicts and civil wars.
- exclusion of women has also been a problem; this has been cited as a cause of significant economic failures. For example, agricultural policies and programmes have usually been arranged by men (African politicians, foreign ‘experts’ and aid grantees); however, in many parts of Africa, the main agricultural producers are women.
3. Loyalty to pre-colonial institutions and entities
- this can be an enormous barrier to the development of a national identity and to the achievement of national intregration.
- as already noted, the idea of nationalism increases this. People can more easily understand and identify with the homogeneous group—same language, same culture, and perhaps the same religion; they accept readily that such a group forms a ‘nation’.
- it is more difficult and very rare for people to accept the idea that a heterogeous, multilingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious aglomeration can form anything as coherent as a ‘nation’.
- this is not just a problem in Africa, but visible almost everywhere. In some cases, very long historical associations can create links; in Africa such links began only with colonialism and that is relatively recent.
4. Outside interference
- this has been very widespread. For the first 30 years especially, African states were frequently caught up in the great superpower rivalry.
- this has sometimes taken the form of attempts to topple or get rid of certain regimes using clandestine activities; however, it was more usual to intervene on behalf of a preferred leader or group.
- not all the initiatives came from outside. Some Africans saw the superpower rivalries as an opportunity and deliberately engaged in playing off one side against the other to extract aid and support. Nkrumah was especially blatant about doing this.
- however, this was dangerous. The natural response of the superpower which lost out was often to turn to some domestic African alternative and tend to support them.
- thus, exacerbation of internal disunity and conflict was both a cause and an effect of outside intervention and interference. Another effect was the flooding of large amounts of military arms and supplies which greatly increased the scale of fighing and scale of bloodshed. Outside interference was not the cause of all the bloodshed; much of the latter was generated internally. However, foreign intervention did, unquestionably, make it much worse.
5. Lack of resources and technical skills
- while some areas of Africa have very significant mineral resources, many other areas, so far at least, have not been found to be so well endowed. Resource exploitation can be used as an engine of economic development (Canada is an example).
- even more significant has been the severe limitations on agricultural production. Large increases in agricultural production and productivity have usually been a precondition and underlying factor in industrialisation.
- large areas of Africa have severe limitations imposed by scarce, limited rainfall and water; some areas are suitable mostly for pastoral activities, but increasing populations of people and animals have tended to worsen the problem by leading to desertification.
- many areas (perhaps because of acidity in the soils) tend to rapid depletion of fertility; traditionally, this problem was dealt with by intermixing crops (e.g., gourds, melons, and vegetables would be planted intermixed with cereal crops and by leaving the land fallow for extended periods (often this was in the form of shifting agriculture). The population explosion plus the emphasis upon producing market crops has meant moving away from the traditional approaches.
- there is a severe problem that has not been solved. Traditional methods produce relatively limited increases in production, but most attempted new approaches have also failed. Africa has had little success in implementing anything equivalent to the ‘green revolution’ which has provided benefits in Asia and elsewhere.
- the lack of skilled human resources has also been endemic. At the time of independence, much of this could be blamed on colonialism.
- substantial efforts were made to rectify the situation; African schools and universities were greatly expanded and large numbers of Africans went abroad to study. Many of the latter did not return or did not stay. Political and economic conditions have often been unattractive and the lack of development sometimes made their acquired education and skills a bit redundant.
- the key point is that often, African societies have not been able to generate any momentum or positively reenforcing cycle; too often there has been a negative cycle.
6. Corruption in government
- this has been a serious problem since independence. Partly, it is a legacy of colonialism.
- ex-patriot, white colonial administrators had received what were in the context of Africa, very high emoluments. As Africans began to replace them, the attitude was that Africans were worth as much as whites and should be paid the same. They insisted on equality.
- the problem was that such pay scales were greatly out of line with what the mass of the population was earning or what the relatively underdeveloped economy could afford or justify. In effect, government employment came to be seen as the major, indeed practically the only, route to the good life.
- when there are great disperities in wealth and lifestyles, it has a corrosive effect. When those at the top receive high salaries, etc., those at the bottom try to emulate. As a result, all people in government may begin to try to use their government jobs to increase their income; bribery of everyone becomes endemic and necessary to get anything done.
- politics and political power come to be seen primarily as a sort of spoils system. This is not so unusual; it has been the tradition in Nova Scotia! There was a revolt in the Liberal Party when Dr. Savage tried to stop it.
- in Africa, this tends to be reenforced by kinship and family ties. Obligations of kinship are strong and everyone expects that kin members in positions of power will assist and prefer their kin. As well, powerful men have large numbers of kin who come to live with them; as a result, even large incomes may not be large enough to meet all the demands being made on them and such people may have a great deal of pressure to try to supplement their incomes.
7. Small size of some of the African states
- economic development almost always requires increasing scale of economic activities, but some African countries are small, either in area or in population because of harsh conditions (arid areas for example).
- national independent governments have often been concerned to protect their markets and thus larger free trade or expanded markets have not been successful and often collapsed.
8 Population Growth
- very rapid population growth has been endemic in Africa since independence. The effects can be very great (recall that the Tshakan revolution may have been caused by population growth late in the 18th C). The foundation of recent population growth was laid in the colonial era, especially in the interwar years. Population growth has a compound effect and the momentum of growth may have been building for a couple of generations before independence. Since independence, growth rates in many areas have been running at 2.5-3 % per annum and even more. At 3%, it takes about 23.5 years for the population to double.
- changes in mortality rates probably explain more of the population growth in Africa than changes in fertility or fecundity. However, there may have been some effect of the latter as well. Food shortages and malnutrition in the precolonial period may have reduced conception rates and, therefore, fertility. Also, foreign religions may have altered traditional birth spacing practices and therefore increased fertility; traditionally in many parts of Africa, it was a disgrace for a woman to become pregnant while she was still nursing a previous baby (for 2 years).
- however, reducing mortality makes a bigger and faster impact on population growth. Some supporters of colonialism used to attribute this to the ‘peace’ imposed by colonialism; this is very unlikely. Africa was not nearly as warlike as these people used to imagine and African warfare affected men. With polygyny, high mortality among men is not too serious in its impact on population growth.
-a more likely explanation is the reduction from disease, especially a reduction in infant and juvenile mortality. Although still high compared to the industrialised world, mortality has dropped in Africa. As a result, more children survive to adulthood and reproduce.
- even in the 1960s, there was concern, not just about the effects in Africa, but in other 3rd world countries in Asia and Latin America. With the invention of the contraceptive pill and other contraceptive devices and techniques, there were means to do something about this problem.
- many aid agencies provided funds or even tried to make economic aid conditional upon adopting family planning and limitation programmes. Such programmes were implemented in India and other parts of Asia (in China, the government implemented very drastic measures).
- in Africa (as indeed in Latin America) these programmes were opposed strongly and not implemented effectively. In Africa traditional values would have provided strong opposition, but that is true of agricultural societies everywhere; children are one’s support in old age. Besides, with high mortality, there is a perceived need to produce many children in order to have a few survive. There is quite a time lag for attitudes to adjust to changes in mortality during which a considerable momentum in population growth can build up.
- however, there was a strange alliance of others to complicate and frustrate population restraint programmes:
- some Marxists began a rather shrill campaign labelling such family planning and limitation programmes as a new form of ‘genocide’; this was taken up quickly by the elites who now governed in independent Africa. I think the latter simply wanted to avoid the unpopularity that such programmes might provoke. Clearly, such programmes were not anti-Marxist because the most vigorous family limitation programmes in the world were in the People’s Republic of China. It was blatant opportunism as far as I can see.
- the Roman Catholic Church was the other partner in this pairing of strange bedfellows. Popes and cardinals in the Vatican do not have to watch their children die of starvation.
- this is not to argue that the population programmes were the most effective means of achieving the objectives. Experience has shown that they often did provoke resistance and therefore could be counter-productive. At least, they have to be coupled with adequate education for girls and women.
- at one time, some people pointed to a corelation between rising standards of living and reduced family size. Thus, it was argued that the best way to reduce population growth was to raise standards of living. The problem was that with 3% population growth, 3% increase in GDP was necessary just to keep even; unless an economy could achieve very high rates of growth over prolonged periods, there was no improvement in per capita GDP or standards of living. Thus, many 3rd world economies had to run pretty fast just to stay in the same place. Any recession or economic setback caused them to lose ground because changes in population growth do not happen quickly. Thus, it seemed difficult to see how to break out of the circle.
- however, a number of studies confirm that one of the greatest determinants of success of family planning and limitation programmes is higher levels of education for women. However, in many countries where age distribution was heavily shifted towards 15 years and under, governments found it extremely difficult to find the resources to provide education for all its children; all too frequently, education for girls was given much lower priority than for boys, especially in rural areas. Parents’ attitudes also contribute, “She’s just going to get married anyway.” Such attitudes are not limited to Africa or 3rd world societies!
Some effects
- many of the problems flowing from the failure to do something about the population time bomb were clearly predictable in the 1960s and many people did predict them.
- the recurring problems of famine in Ethiopia and elsewhere in the Sahel are an example.
- growing populations in arid regions try to solve their problems of subsistence by larger herds; the animals overgraze the land and denude it of the limited but essential vegetation. As a result, the soil dries out, tends to blow away and becomes a desert. Deserts in the Sahara and the Kalahari have been growing, in some cases by several miles per year in the process called desertification. Many agricultural activities often tend to have the same effects.
- one group of scientists have recently argued that the effects of human activities have been exaggerated. Their argument is that deserts fluctuate in response primarily to climatic change; human activity produces only minor effects.
- whatever the causes of desertification (and certainly the deserts have been growing), human and animal populations increased at the same time that the carrying capacity of the land was being reduced. As a result, we have seen horrific famines.
- food aid from food surpluses in the rest of the world have been rushed in, but these cannot provide a long term solution to the underlying problem. In fact, some argued that they make it worse; people are not forced to deal with the underlying problem.
- aid can frequently undercut production.
- Burkino Faso example. During a drought, up to 90% of cattle in some areas died. In the wake, many of the people came to realise that they should strive for quality rather than quantity in cattle. However, they need good prices if they are going to make the switch. However, the European community built up huge meat surpluses which it sold at cut rate prices or sometimes even gave away as aid. This greatly undercut the prices that the herders needed to get.
- free or cheap grain has the same depressing effects on grain farmers in the African countries. This is often related to a political problem. Politicians are often very concerned to keep food prices as low as possible. This is what consumers in the cities want; with the enormous growth of African cities, this is where political power is most centered. Also, unhappiness in cities can result in disturbances much more readily than in rural areas. Thus, there is a tendency to cater to city dwellers.
- over population is a relative term. By European standards, Africa is much less densely populated than Europe. However, this is true of Canada too. The issue has to be related more directly to the carrying capacity of the land.
- 3% population growth requires that GDP must grow at 3% just to stay even. Most African countries have not managed that consistently. As a result, there has been a relative decline (i.e., in per capita GDP). In some cases, often greatly exacerbated by civil wars and other upheavals, there have been absolute declines; thus, per capita GDP declines have at times been catastrophic. This greatly intensifies other conflicts.
9. Controlling the military
- when independence came so suddenly, there was little preparation of military forces. Most colonial regimes had police forces recruited locally, but depended primarily on imperial forces for military protection. Where there were military units including Africans, the officers would be white; thus, there were few Africans of officer rank.
- one of the first orders of business for independent African states was the need to create a military; every sovereign state needs one!
- virtually everywhere, this was done hurriedly with officers often being trained abroad in short crash courses (some came to Canada). At times, there was an imbalance in ethnic composition in the new armies which sometimes had serious consequences.
- armies are always a potential source of danger to governments. Usually, only a long tradition of obedience to civilian authorities or perhaps a deep reverence for a constitution (as in the US) can help to keep them under control. Also, a high degree of political coherence is very important; if a population is very much agreed upon a political arrangement, then the military may hesitate to intrude or overthrown the civilian government.
- however, traditions cannot be built over night. Also, the rapid creation of military organisations allowed not only very rapid promotions but also people of very dubious background and character to move up the ranks too rapidly.
- Idi Amin is the clearest example of the latter. He had a very limited background in the military as a lower level NCO. He was able to move up very rapidly in spite of limited education; he managed to establish a power position in the army and used that position to take over the state in Uganda by promising a great deal to the men in the ranks.
- on the other hand, military leaders often watched in growing dismay as political situations deteriorated in so many independent states:
- increasing political fragmentation; politics became increasingly ethnic and often more violent;
- mismanagement of economies and growing international debt brought a number of governments to virtual bankruptcy;
- increasing corruption in government.
- as a result, a number of military takeovers were done in the context of growing public dissatisfaction and disgust with the politicians; in a number of cases, they were welcomed initially.
- in some cases as politics degenerated into ethnic struggles, the military, with a mix and balancing of ethnic groups, argued that they could restore unity and resolve the growing ethnic conflict and avoid civil war. Or in the case of secession (as happened when the Ibo tried to break away and form Biafra), the army came forward as the only institution that could recover the area and restore unity to Nigeria.
- however, military regimes have been no better at governing than civilian regimes. They have not been better at building national unity, at initiating and stimulating economic development or at reducing and ending corruption in government.
- the point here is that military interventions have often been stimulated by political disunity and instability; however, military interventions often have the effect of increasing disunity and instability. Thus, the two tend to reenforce each other in a vicious circle.
10. One party States
- this was put forward as the best political solution for the circumstances in Africa; it was tried in quite a few newly independent African state. In these cases, only one party would be allowed and all rival parties would be pressured or harassed out of existence.
Justifications:
- Efficiency
- multiple parties engage in competition and the result is waste:
- only a portion of the available human resources are in power at one time;
- the parties pursue contradictory policies; thus, state policies tend to zig-zag;
- promotes corruption.
- it was argued that richer, developed countries could afford such waste, but African countries could not.
- Avoid arousing ethnic conflict
- competing political leaders would find it easier to mobilise support ethnically, and therefore, political rivalry would tend to intensify ethnic rivalry.
- Planning and coordination of development
- the newly independent African states needed to catch up and develop; this would require complete absorption of their resources and energies. The populations would have to be mobilised for this huge and common task; this mobilisation could be done best by one party without being distracted by political struggles and concerns.
- Inappropriate class model
- this argument was put forward by Tom Mboya (a Luo leader in Kenya who worked closely with Kenyatta). He contended that the 2 party system had originated in class societies and thus was an outgrowth and extension of class struggles. This was not the African experience; in Africa, nationalist movements were a unified movement of all African people to foreign domination. As a result, a one-party system was more appropriate than one with more than one party.
- Multi-party systems were imposed by colonialism
- it was contended that multi-party systems were foisted on Africa. The imperialists in resisting independence tried to build up rivals and such systems were thus part of divide and control tactics. Alternately, in places like Kenya where there were foreign communities (white settlers and Asians), the foreign minorities hoped to avoid losing control to a unified African majority.
- in any case, multi-party systems were part of neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism; abolition of a multi-party system and going to a one-party state was the only way to frustrate and end neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism.
Evaluation
- most independent African states quickly moved to a one-party system.
- usually, the proponents of a one-party system were committed to a mass party rather than the Leninist concept of an elite party (‘the vanguard party’) of the Soviet model. However, nowhere, with the partial exception of Tanzania, has this been successful. In Tanzania, the ruling party found a partial solution by promoting vigorous competition and competitive elections at the local level; this promoted debate of issues and policies as well as bringing new people into the political process.
- many of the monopoly parties began to attrophy, especially at the local level. Without the stimulus of competitive elections, local organisations tended to become moribund.
- regional political activities declined markedly.
- power became centralised and authoritarian. Without healthy regional and local party organisation and activity, the national leaders quickly lost touch with the grassroots.
- alternate organisations were feared and tended to be destroyed or taken over. For example, trade unions, which were often very important during the independence struggle, were usually taken over by political parties; severe declines and even disintegration usually resulted.
- much of this seems to be based upon fear. The elites who took over and even more those who came to power as a result of coups were afraid to allow any opposition that might challenge their hold on power.
.Economic Development Strategies
- many approaches have been tried but so far successes have been few and limited. Even where there has been some limited successes, often population growth has overwhelmed.
- there has been a sharp divergence of opinion on the proper or best strategy to be pursued. The following example illustrates the dilemmas and difficulties of choosing a strategy
Bata Shoes in Kenya
- with some aid, Bata shoes set up a relatively modern shoe factory producing shoes and sandals for the Kenya and East Africa market. It produced a few hundred jobs and was hailed as a small, but significant, contribution to ‘development’ and industrialisation.
- however, critics argued that it did more harm than good as mechanised production displaced and threw into unemployment several thousand handcraft shoe makers, thus exacerbating an already severe unemployment problem. Handcraft production was low capital intensity but high labour intensity, and that this was appropriate to the economic status and resources of Kenya; Kenya has relatively little capital and most must be imported, creating strains on scarce foreign exchange or mortgaging the future with debt or foreign control of the economy if the capital is provided by direct investment.
Alternatives
- Appropriate Technology
- according to this approach, manufacturing technology should be appropriate to the needs and stage of development. It should make use of abundant resources; where this includes or is made up of large surpluses of labour (especially unskilled and poorly educated labour), then it should use labour intensive techniques rather than capital intensive ones.
- complex technology which requires highly skilled technicians to operate and repair machinery should be avoided because this will require, at least in the short term, importing highly paid technicians from outside.
- there was a classic example of this in Tanzania. With Canadian aid money through CIDA, a large, modern locomotive repair shop was built. It was a disaster and white elephant; because of the high-tech equipment, there was difficulty getting people to operate, let alone repair the equipment.
- however, the logic of this approach is that the entire industrialisation process is to be reproduced stage by stage. In effect, it may be a ‘reinventing the wheel’ strategy, or even more harshly, labelled a ‘Luddite’ response.
- ‘Leap frog’ Strategy
- in this approach, it is questioned why go through the painful and protracted stages of the past when one can bypass that and take advantage of the experience and gains made by others? Make use of the latest or at least recent technology. Because developing economies with large labour forces usually have low wage levels, they should be able to be very competitive.
- proponents of this strategy argue that this way, developing economies start more or less at par with producers elsewhere while the first strategy almost certainly dooms the economy to permanent backwardness with out of date technology.
- eonomists generally prefer the 2nd strategy:
- it involves more efficient use of resources, especially human resources; several hundred workers in mechanised factories can produce more, more cheaply than several thousand handcraftsmen;
- consumers get a greater supply of cheaper goods leading to the possibility of higher consumption and higher standards of living.
- moreover, there is an example of implementing the 1st strategy.
- the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in China under Mao in the 1950s was a massive implementation of this. The Great Leap Forward involved going back to very basic and primitive techniques; the latter were very labour intensive. For example, instead of machines, large numbers of people were used for earth moving; they even went back to ‘hole in the ground’ smelting techniques for iron.
- the ‘Great Leap Forward’ was an enormous disaster exceeded only by the Great Cultural Revolution; the economy was set back by a couple of decades.