Suchergebnisse

The call for a national debate on the country's political future has so far generated a lukewarm response. However, several tendencies have appeared which have serious implications for the struggle for democracy. Coming in the wake of the debate about Nigeria's relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one would have thought that the 'political debate' would have been informed by the specific problems the economy is experiencing and the concrete adjustment policies the state has persistently implemented since 1982. Even some of the radicals who ought to have drawn the correct lessons from the diversionary tactics of the state in the IMF debate have tended to proceed as if we are starting from a tabula raisa,without any concrete economic policies which inform the state's quest for a new political order. This partly explains the reason for the strange convergence which seems to be developing between some radicals and the bourgeoisie in the articulation of a new political formula.
The thrust of this paper is to discuss the link between the state's adjustment programme and the question of political power. We argue that the adjustment programme of contemporary monetarism, which reached its highest expression in the 1986 budget, throws up specific types of political regimes ranging from zero/one and controlled two party systems to military rule, civil/ military diarchy and corporate representation. Against the background of the specific character of capitalist accumulation, with its monopolistic, antidemocratic and corrupt practices, the monetarist strategy of crisis‐management pushes the state towards more authoritarian policies. Many contributors to the political debate have not grasped this point. The appropriate response to authoritarian rule should, therefore, focus on the struggle for democracy and the strengthening of the working class movement for socialist power instead of the strategy of co‐determination which seeks to resolve the conflicting interests in the society under a unitary power structure that will accommodate the representatives of popular organisations.

Introduction : Globalization and public sector reform / Yusuf Bangura and George A. Larbi -- Applying the new public management in developing countries / George A. Larbi -- Elusive public sector reform in east and southern Africa / Ole Therkildsen -- Public sector management reform in Latin America / Andrew Nickson -- Capacity to deliver? Management, institutions and public services in developing countries / Richard Batley and George A. Larbi -- Fiscal and capacity-building reform / Yusuf Bangura -- Employment and pay reform in developing and transition societies / Willy McCourt -- Fiscal decentralization in developing countries : theory and practice / Paul Smoke -- Decentralization policies and practices under adjustment and democratization in Africa / Dele Olowu -- Public-private partnerships and pro-poor development : the experience of the Córboda water concession in Argentina / Andrew Nickson -- Public sector reform : what are the lessons of experience? / George A. Larbi and Yusuf Bangura

Understanding the success or failure of economic reforms in LDCs requires some analysis of the complex relations between technocrats and political leaders and the social constraints both sets of actors face. The article examines the effectiveness of intellectuals in government, and compares the Nigerian case with technocratic experiments in Ghana, Botswana and Cote d'Ivoire. (DSE)

The debate between the two main authors is essentially about understanding the causes of the Nigerian economic crisis

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