The Success Stories of Developmental State Paradigm from Botswana and Mauritius: Lessons for the Contemporary African Countries

Abstract

Since the onset of the global economic crisis in 2007/08, the key trend that has made is the reconceptualise of therole of state intervention or developmental state to address the market failure problems and to accelerate thedevelopment process of developing countries. The conventionally accepted wisdom of free market-led(neoliberal) development model as a necessary condition for transforming backward economies to high level canno longer taken at face value. The ultimate goal of the developmental state paradigm is to accelerated economicdevelopment that substantially raises the per capita income of the citizenry with a focus on structuraltransformation. To materialise this, African countries should adopt the developmental state paradigm based onthe respective contexts given their committed political leadership, competent bureaucracy and well-functioninginstitutions rather than based on “one-size-fits-all” approach imported from the outside based on different tiedterms and conditions.Keywords: Africa, Development, Developmental state, Institutions