Abstract
The economic liberalization associated with orthodox structural adjustment is unlikely to permit the consolidation or deepening of democracy in southern Africa. Indeed, by introducing additional tensions and uncertainties into a highly charged political situation, it is far more likely to extinguish the flickering flame of freedom and pave the way for chaos or authoritarianism. If, by chance, democracy should survive, it would be a Guatemalan democracy that merely obscured an authoritarian reality.
Everyone applauds democracy, those who in practice oppose it applaud most loudly.
(Gills and Rocamora1)
Nigeria’s return to democracy could hardly have come at a more difficult time … without substantial debt relief … Nigeria has little chance of sustaining an IMF programme. The Shonekan government offers only a brief window of opportunity for western creditors to do a conditional deal with a non-elected civilian authority for the new elected administration to inherit. It is a chance that may not recur.
(E. Balls, Financial Times)
Borrowers and lenders often fail to take full account of the institutional, social and political rigidities that restrict a country’s capacity to adjust. (World Bank)
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Notes
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Bienefeld, M.A. (1995). Structural Adjustment and the Prospects for Democracy in Southern Africa. In: Moore, D.B., Schmitz, G.J. (eds) Debating Development Discourse. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24199-6_3
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