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A Developmental State Without Growth? Explaining The Paradox Of Burkina Faso In A Comparative Perspective, Michael Kevane, Pierre Englebert

Economics

For scholars of Africa's political economy, an important problem has been explaining and understanding how a country escapes rule by criminals and warlords and instead comes to be directed by a set of lower-key kleptocrats who operate within a set of institutions which on the whole promote incentives and preferences for good "governance". In this paper, we look at how a state has emerged in Burkina Faso which has overall been benevolent and developmental, at least by Sahelian standards. We argue that a host of factors have spared the modern state a substantial social challenge and have allowed for relatively …