African Economies in Transition

This volume analyses the reform efforts in African economies through detailed country case studies of Tanzania, Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Angola, as well as the debate on reform of the agricultural sector. These countries were among those which most strongly embraced statist economic policies in the 1970s and 1980s by declaring themselves Marxist and embracing state-led economic development programmes, with government control over resource allocation, state monopoly banking systems supporting import-substitution industries and the proliferation of domestic monopolies operated by the public sector and free from import or domestic competition. These factors contributed to poor economic performance in the 1970s and 1980s and these countries sought to reorientate economic policies away from state dominance. These studies of economic transition in those countries which began the reform process with among the most unfavourable initial conditions for reform also examine the impact of changing international economic conditions and terms-of-trade shocks which exacerbated the difficulties of reform. The case studies offer valuable comparative lessons for the reform process elsewhere. A companion volume, African Economies in Transition: Volume 1: The Changing Role of the State, addresses macroeconomic reform and the privatization of state enterprises in the context of economic reform and marketization across the continent.