Seminar: Partipolitik og udvikling af den private sektor i Afrika

Time: Wednesday, 18 May at 13 -15 hours

Venue: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, ground floor, Strandgade 71, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

Background

Time: Wednesday, 18 May at 13 -15 hours

Venue: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, ground floor, Strandgade 71, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

Background

Given the adoption of neoliberal principles by African countries over the last twenty years, studies have burgeoned on the causes and consequences of market formation and private sector development on the continent.

Similarly, just as African countries have acquired the trappings of democracy, research on political party formation, voter behaviour, and campaign finance has proliferated. Yet, rarely do these two literatures interact.

Professor Anne Pitcher argues that variation in the features of party systems across the African continent helps to explain the divergent outcomes of private sector development.

Using the cases of Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa, she will show that differences in the logic of party politics influence the pace of parastatal sales, the management of distributional conflicts arising from privatization, patterns of foreign and indigenous investment, and the relationship between the state and business.

Anne Pitcher’s research has explored the political economy of colonialism in Lusophone Africa; the legacy of socialism and the transition to capitalism in Mozambique; and the creation of credible commitments to economic reform across Sub-Saharan Africa.

She is the author of “Politics in the Portuguese Empire” (Oxford University Press, 1993), “Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization, 1975-2000” (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and co-editor with Kelly Askew of “African Postsocialisms” (Edinburgh University Press, 2006).

Currently, she is analyzing how different party systems shape the characteristics of market economies in Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa and Angola. She is completing a book entitled “Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa’s Democracies”, which will be published by Cambridge University Press.

Anne Pitcher will give the eighth seminar in the Business-State Relations and Economic Development seminar series being held this spring at DIIS.

SPEAKERS
* Anne Pitcher, Professor, University of Michigan, USA
* Lindsay Whitfield, Project Senior Researcher, DIIS

PROGRAMME
12.30 – 13
Arrival and Coffee

13 -14
Party Politics and Private Sector Development in Africa – Anne Pitcher, Professor, University of Michigan, USA

14 -15
Open Discussion

Chair: Lindsay Whitfield, Project Senior Researcher, DIIS

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form.

And do so no later than Tuesday, 17 May at 12.00 noon.

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation.

Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), The Conference Section, Strandgade 56, 1401 Kbn K, tlf. 32 69 87 51, e-mail: [email protected] og web: www.diis.