The State, Development and the Role of Local Economic Systems in Southern Africa

The role of local economic systems has not been systemically analyzed by proponents of new approaches to state-building and development in sub-Saharan Africa. The study of the development process in Africa has conventionally emphasized the overbearing influence of dysfunctional domestic elites and external factors. In the attempt to assert its authority, modern structures are imposed over local systems, marring their role as sources of social and economic reproduction at the local level. This failure to recognize the local economic systems as institutions that can and should play a crucial role in the process of political and economic development in Africa provides a basis for the high cost of implementing the development agenda in most African states. Using evidence from Mozambique and Botswana, this work discusses why the state in Africa needs to interact with these local institutions as active partners and how this relationship can contribute to meaningful development and reduce the likelihood of societal and political conflict by boosting the perceived legitimacy of the state and the development process.