Abstract
‘The study of political science would certainly gain considerably in realism and relevance by focusing attention on the roots of politics at the levels of production, social relations and social organisation of class forces. But political scientists may also contribute significantly to an understanding of the impact of politics on economic and social forces and the contradictions and struggles to which they give rise. At the level of theory, both concerns require an understanding of the dialectical relationship of determination and interaction which connect the economic and political levels of society.’—Bjorn Beckman, ‘Political Science and Political Economy’, in Yolamu Barongo (ed.) Political Science in Africa: a critical review (London: Zed, 1983) p. 110.
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Notes and References
Adebayo Adedeji, ‘The Evolution of the Monrovia Strategy and the Lagos Plan of Action: A Regional Approach to Economic Decolonisation’ (Addis Ababa: ECA, 1983) p. 2. See also his useful historical-cum-political-cum-philosophical ‘Introduction’, in ECA and Africa’s Development, 1983–2008 pp. 1–3.
See ECA, Revised Framework of Principles for the Implementation of the New International Economic Order in Africa, 1976–1981–1986 (Addis Ababa, 1976).
For more on the contribution of, and constraints on, the ECA as an innovative, even progressive, institution see Timothy M. Shaw, ‘Towards a Political Economy of the Lagos Plan: Innovation, Interest and Ideology’, Lagos Plan of Action Workshop Centre for African Studies, Dalhousie University, October 1983.
Cf. the revisionist modernisation perspective still pervading World Bank thinking — the call for renewed concentration on ‘Management in Development’ — in World Development Report 1983 (Washington: OUP for IBRD, 1983) pp. 41–127.
See inter alia Ali A. Mazrui, Africa’s International Relations: The Diplomacy of Dependency and Change (Boulder: Westview, 1977) pp. 29–35.
Adedeji, ‘The Evolution of the Monrovia Strategy and the Lagos Plan of Action’, p. 12. For one attempt to investigate and improve on economic nationalism on the continent see Adebayo Adedeji (ed.), Indigenization of African Economies (London: Hutchinson, 1981).
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© 1985 Timothy M. Shaw
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Shaw, T.M. (1985). Conclusion — Prospect: Constraints and Contradictions in a Post-Industrial World. In: Towards a Political Economy for Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17747-9_6
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