(All rights reserved)
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
SEMESTER 2021/2022 ACADEMIC YEAR
COURSE SYLLABUS[1]
Course Code and Title: POLI 642 (Strategies of Development in Africa)
Course Credit: 4 Credits
Lecture Period(s) and Venue: Thurs
(12:00hrs)/Dept. Seminar Room 1
Prerequisites: Not Applicable
Course
Instructor:
- Lloyd G. Adu Amoah, Ph.D.
- Office Location: Department of Political Science, Room 15
- Office Hours : By Appointment
- E-mail: lgamoah@ug.edu.gh
“They train you to be
paralyzed and then they sell you crutches”-Eduardo Galeano
Course
Overview
The Course begins with a thorough overview and examination of
the idea of development by tracing ITS historical evolution. This will then
segué into a comprehensive review of some of the dominant rationalizations
proffered for the persistent challenges hindering the development of
contemporary sub-Saharan African nations. The second part identifies and
analyzes some of the main strategies adopted [e.g. Import Substitution
Industrialization(ISI), Economic Recovery Programme/Structural Adjustment
Programme(ERP/SAP), the New Partnership for African Development(NEPAD), the
Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative(HIPC), Millennium Development
Goals(MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), the Information
Communication Technology(ICT) Revolution, etc] for overcoming the challenges
facing African development. The experience of Ghana (and other African
countries) will be utilized to illustrate the strengths, weaknesses and
limitations associated with these developmental options. The course will end
with reflections on some emergent conceptions of development (and development strategy)
and Africa’s possible response(s) to these.
Course Objectives
This Course, will concern itself with :
a.
exposing students to a nuanced and comprehensive appreciation of development as
an essentially contested idea.
b.
the ways in which the local and international contexts shape and impact African
development attempts and trajectories.
c.
the theoretical and empirical aspects(historical and contemporary) of Africa’s
development strategies and their strengths,
weaknesses, trade-offs and prospects.
d.
a selection of emergent development strategies and the possible ways in which Africa can respond , harness or even transcend these.
Learning Outcomes
The Course seeks:
1. To improve
critical thinking via intense and very close reading, reflection,
critique, analysis and synthesis and exercising the ability to contemplate from
multiple and even disparate lenses and frameworks.
2. To develop
strong communication skills, both verbal and written, by closely engaging
assigned texts, participating in discussions and self -directed research.
Weekly Schedule
|
Course
Title |
Strategies of Development in
Africa |
||
|
Code |
POLI 642 |
||
|
Lecturer |
Dr. Lloyd G. Adu Amoah |
||
|
Assessment |
A series of assessments will
constitute 30% of the overall assessment of the course. The final examination
will constitute 70% of overall assessment. |
||
|
Week No. |
Date |
Lecture
Topics |
Venue |
|
1 |
14th
July, 2022 |
§ Course admin. Issues/Overview of syllabus |
DSR1 |
|
2 |
21st
July, 2022 |
Just what is
development? (I) Readings and
Course Preparation Assignment 1 |
DSR1 |
|
3 |
28th
July,2022 |
Just what is
development? (II) |
DSR1 |
|
4 |
22nd
July, 2022 |
Readings
and Course Preparation Assignment 2 |
DSR1 |
|
5 |
4th August, 2022 |
African
Underdevelopment Theories-Modernization Theories |
DSR1 |
|
6 |
11th
August,2022 |
African
Underdevelopment Theories –Dependency Theories |
DSR1 |
|
7 |
18th
August,2022 |
African
Underdevelopment Theories- New Realities and
Understandings |
DSR1 |
|
8 |
25th
August,2022 |
African
Development Strategies- Neoliberalism
and its Spin-Offs |
DSR1 |
|
9 |
1st
September 2022 |
African
Development Strategies- From NEPAD to
SDGs |
DSR1 |
|
10 |
Sept.5 – Sept.9, 2022 |
Revision
Week |
|
|
11 |
Sept.10 – Sept. 25, 2022 |
Examinations |
|
Course Texts
A. Just what is
Development?
Diop, C.A. (1978). Black
Africa: the Economic and Cultural Basis of a Federated State. -Illinois,
Chicago and Trenton, New Jersey: Lawrence Hill Books. Chapter 1.
Mazower,
M.(2012). Governing the world: the
history of an idea. New York: Penguin Press. Chapter 10.
Rist,
G.(2014). The history of development :from
Western origins to global faith. London and New York: Zed Books. Chapter 4.
Power,
M. (2014). Enlightenment and the era of modernity. In Desai, V. and Potter,
R.B. (eds.) The Companion to Development
Studies, 3nd Ed, (London: Routledge) pp. 154-160.
Bacon, F.
(1860), “Novum Organum,” in Charles Hirschfeld, ed., Classics of Western Civilization, New York: Harcourt, Brace and
World, Inc.p.1-13
Szirmai,
A. (2005). The Dynamics of Socio-Economic Development: An Introduction.
Cambridge, London: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1.
Michael L. McNulty, “The Contemporary Map of Africa,” in Africa, edited by Phyllis M. Martin and
Patrick O’Meara. Bloomingdale: Indiana University Press, 1995.
B. Theories of African
Under-Development
Amoah,
L.G.A.(2021).COVID-19 and the state in Africa: The state is dead, long live the
state. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10841806.2020.1840902
Kiros,
T. (2004), “Frantz Fanon (1925-1965)” in Kwasi Wiredu,(ed.),A Companion to African Philosophy,
Massachusetts, London,Victoria: Blackwell
pp.216-224.
Frank, Andre, Gunder,
"The Development of Underdevelopment," in James D. Cockcroft, Andre
Gunder Frank, and Dale Johnson, eds., Dependence and Underdevelopment.
(New York: Anchor Books, 1972).
T.S.
Santos (1970). “The Structure of Dependence,” The American Economic Review, 60(2): 231-236.
Rostow,
W.W.(1959). “The Stages of Economic Growth,” The Economic History Review (12):1–16.
Chinweizu(2010). Pan-Africanism and a Black Superpower —The
21st century agenda. Paper presented at the CBAAC conference on
Pan-Africanism, Abuja, September, 2010.
Lubeck,
P. “The Crisis of African Development: Conflicting Interpretations and
Resolutions” Annual Review of
Sociology 18: 519-540.
Rosenstein-Rodan, P.N.(1943). “Problems of
Industrialisation of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe,”
The Economic Journal, 53(210/211): 202-211.
North, D.(1998).Understanding
Economic Change. In Transforming Post-Communist Political-Economies.
Edited by Joan M.
Nelson, Charles Tilly, and Lee Walker. Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press.
C. African Underdevelopment Theories- New Realities and
Understandings
Rose, N.
and Miller, P. (1992). Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of
Government. The British Journal of Sociology, 43(2): 173-205.
Uysal, Gönenç(2021).
Turkey’s sub-imperialism in sub-saharan Africa. Review of Radical Political
Economics. 53(3), 442–461.
Marini, R.Y. (1972).
Brazilian subimperialism. Monthly
Review, 23(9), 14-24.
Elliott, I. C.,
Bottom, K. A., Carmichael, P., Liddle, J., Martin, S., & Pyper, R. (2022).
The fragmentation of public administration: Differentiated and decentered
governance in the (dis)United Kingdom. Public Administration, 100(1), 98– 115.
Coleman, D. (2019).
Digital colonialism: the 21st century scramble for Africa through the
extraction and control of user data and the limitations of data protection laws.
Michigan Journal of Race and Law, 24,
417-439.
Jutel, O. (2021). Blockchain imperialism in
the Pacific. Big Data & Society.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720985249
D. African Development
Strategies
Amoah, L.G.A.(2018). Laying the foundations for “doing” the
developmental state: why and how Korea “did” it and Ghana “did not” but can.
Working Paper Series No. 1. Centre for Asian Studies. Accra: University of
Ghana Press.
Mkandiware, T. (2010). From Maladjusted States to Democratic
Developmental States. In Constructing a
Developmental State in South Africa: potentials and challenges. Edited by
Omano Edigheji. Cape-Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. pp 59-81.
Fosu, A.G. and Ogunleye, E.K. (2015). African Growth Strategies:
The Past, Present, and
Future. In The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics:
Volume 2: Policies and Practices. Edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu
Lin. Oxford Handbook Onliine. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199687107.013.002
Szirmai,A.(2005).
The Dynamics of Socio-Economic Development: An Introduction. Cambridge, London:
Cambridge University Press. Chapter 8.
Dumenal,
G. and Dominique, L.(2005 ). “The NeoLiberal(Counter-)Revolution” in Alfredo
Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston, eds., NeoLiberalism
: A Critical Reader, London, Michigan: Pluto Press.pp.9-19.
Fosu, A.G.(2012). Ghana:
The Development Record and the Washington Consensus. In The Oxford Companion
to the economics of Africa. Edited by Ernest Aryeetey et al.London: Oxford
University Press. Pp.494-498.
Cammack,
P.(2016). “The UNDP, the World Bank and Human Development through the World
Market,” Development Policy Review, 0(0):1-19.
E. African (Post)Development
and Prospects for the Future
Amoah, L.G.A. (2015)The
Rise of Telcos and Africa's Knowledge Society: What Have Telchambs Got to Do
With It?. In L. Amoah (Ed.), Impacts of the Knowledge Society on
Economic and Social Growth in Africa (pp. 112-133). Hershey, PA: IGI
Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-5844-8.ch007 http://www.igi-global.com/book/impacts-knowledge-society-economic-social/94906
Bell,
D. On the Post-Industrial. Extract from his work The Coming of the Post-Industrial: A Venture in Social Forecasting.
New York: Basic Books(1973)
Castells,
M. (2010), “Globalization, Networking, Urbanizations: Reflections on the
Spatial Dynamics of the Information Age,” Urban
Studies, 47(13): 2737-2745.
Kothari,
A. et al(2019). Pluriverse : A Post Development
Dictionary. New Delhi : Tulika Books.
Follett,
M. P. (2003). Power. In H. C. Metcalf & L. Urwick, (Ed.), Dynamic
administration: The collected papers of Mary Parker Follett (pp. 95–116). New
York, NY: Routledge. Original edition, 1942.
Foucault,
M. (1994). The order of things. New York, NY: Vintage.
Gaventa,
J. (1982). Power and powerlessness: Quiessence and rebellion in an Appalachian
valley. Springfield, MA: University of Illinois Press.
Gaventa,
J. (2006). Finding the spaces for change: A power analysis. IDS Bulletin,
37(6), 23–33. doi:10.1111/j.1759-5436.2006.tb00320.x
Mbembe,
A.(2016). Decolonizing the university: new directions. Arts
& Humanities in Higher Education, 15(1): 29–45.
Mills,
C.W. (1997). The Racial Contract. New
York : Cornell University Press.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A.(2000). Empire. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Rees, M. (2015). Cheer up, the
Post-human World is Coming. Weekend
Financial Times. p.9
The Economist (October 4-10,2014).
“Emerging Economies: Arrested Development” in A Special Report on Technology and the World Economy, p11-13. The
Economist 433(8907).
Course Requirements
1. Students are required to be conversant with at
least 85% of the relevant reading materials on the suggested reading
list above. Self-led extensive reading is a MUST for the course. The
lecturer will assist where possible with suggested texts. Evidence of diligent
reading will contribute to grading.
2. Students are also required to regularly attend
Tutorials and make meaningful contributions to discussions as this would count
towards their grading in the end of semester examination.
3. There would be 13 weeks of Lectures and students must endeavour
to attend lectures regularly.
4. Course Preparation Assignments (CPAs) are directed at ensuring that students read
and reflect(individually or as group assignment) on the texts and cases
assigned for the class and serve as preparation for class discussions. CPAs
will involve write ups on assigned texts and case(s) reflections based on
rubrics provided by the instructor. These will be graded (in addition to other
forms of assessments) and be part of your 30% interim assessment.
[1]
This syllabus is not cast in stone. The instructor reserves the right to alter content
as an when the need arises.
