Global Governance, State Capacity and the Development Crisis in Africa ()
ABSTRACT
This article explores the nexus between global
governance and state capacity in view of the implications for development crisis in Africa. Adopting a global governance analytical framework, the article
contends with the norms and rules guiding contemporary world order. Primarily
designed by Western powers and their allied multilateral institutions,
African states often play peripheral roles in
the process of global governance. It is argued that various international developmental models and strategies including Structural
Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced by Western powers and their multilateral agencies cannot yield the
desired goals at the expense of good governance and productive political order in
various African countries. The post-colonial experiences of many African states
have demonstrated that successive leaderships in most parts of the continent
have always undermined the tenets of good
governance within the spectrum of liberal democracy. Thus, various
elements of bad governance including corruption, abuse of the rule of law and contempt of democratic values on the one
hand, and external manipulation by
the hegemonic tendencies of the Western hemisphere on the other have
drastically reduced Africans to captives of powerful states. The consistent
pressure from global forces has undermined the capacity of the African state to
implement an autonomous policy that is
consistent with its historical, socio-cultural,
economic and political realities. The article concludes that through effective internal governance framework
and productive economic order, Africa can benefit maximally from the
Western model for “best practices” on democracy. Thus, while a
“global vision” may be desirable, given the interdependent
nature of contemporary global order, however, the path to sustainable development depends on the development
of indigenous African visions in consonance with the people’s socio-cultural,
political and economic realities.
KEYWORDS
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
Sustainable Adjustment Programmes (SAPs),
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
Global Governance,
Liberal Democracy,
League of Nations,
United Nations Development Program (UNDP),
Multinational Corporation,
Transnational,
Institution,
International Organization,
Pandemic,
Extremism,
Development
Share and Cite:
Akande, S. and Ojo, O. (2024) Global Governance, State Capacity and the Development Crisis in Africa.
Sociology Mind,
14, 54-68. doi:
10.4236/sm.2024.141004.
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