Markets and States in Tropical Africa
Robert H. Bates
Why would a government wreck its own farmers? Because it pays politically.
Bates argued that Africa's agricultural decline was not accident or ignorance but the predictable result of rational political calculation: marketing boards and overvalued currencies taxed peasant farmers to subsidize urban consumers and industrialists whose support regimes needed. By applying public-choice logic to African states, he moved explanation from culture or colonial legacy toward domestic institutions and incentives.
Its legacy. It helped found a lasting school of political-economy analysis of African development.
- Author
- Robert H. Bates
- First published
- 1981
- Genre
- Political economy
- Theme
- Political Economy and Development
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