Social Policy and Rights in Africa From Social Contract to Loss of Self-determination

Bibliographic Data

ID11471027
AuthorsFiroze Manji (0000-0001-9465-7035, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume31
Issue4
Pages11-20
Publication date2000-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIDS Bulletin (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0265-5012 • E-ISSN: 1759-5436
PublisherInstitute of Development Studies (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1759-5436.2000.mp31004002.x
OpenAlexW1997065653
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited3

Summaries The agenda for social development in Africa, and therefore the framework in which social policy is defined, has undergone major shifts over the last forty years. This has partly been the result of the ability of post?colonial governments to depoliticise poverty and demobilise the movements that brought them to power. But the major reason has been the current phase of the globalisation of capital, which has demanded a major restructuring of the world economy to suit its needs. The primary instruments used in effecting those changes were structural adjustment programmes and associated policies. These have resulted in the few accumulating (on a global as well as national level) immense wealth while the majority were condemned to greater poverty, and a reversal of the social gains of independence. In effect, there has been an increasing disenfranchisement of the majority in determining the goals of social development. With the rise of globalisation, the agenda for social development is being set, largely unilaterally, by undemocratic institutions of globalisation in the interests of multinational corporations

Commons · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Globalization · Market economy · Multinational corporation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Restructuring · Social change · Social contract · Social policy · Social protection · Human Rights and Development · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access