Aid and state transition in Ghana and South Korea

Abstract

This paper examines the questions of why and how foreign assistance was utilised successfully in South Korea but less so in Ghana, with a focus on the role of aid in the process of state building and state transition in these two countries. As multiple policy makers and scholars have noted, in 1957 South Korea and Ghana shared similar levels of GDP per capita, yet South Korea then achieved rapid economic development and democracy in one generation, while Ghana suffered from slow development and a general deterioration of the standard of living. In this study I adopt a comparative historical research method to explain the divergent paths of these two countries, with a special focus on the impact of foreign assistance on state transitions. I argue that contextual factors -including the effect of the colonial legacy in each of these two regions in shaping modern states, and the specific characteristics of foreign assistance intervention -provide useful insights in explaining the differential impact of aid on state building and state transition in Ghana and in South Korea.

Collective action for tackling “wicked” social problems: A system dynamics model for corporate community involvement

“…The central argument here is that corporate-driven community development endeavours-even if motivated by the best intentions-may keep communities in dependency, rather than empowering them through capacity-building and real participation. This argument resembles somewhat the foreign aid debate that underlines (for example in the case of the transition of South Korea) that the key factor of successful development was internal political processes that minimized negative side-effects of development aid, rather than direct external interventions in state-building (Kim, 2015). In the case of community involvement in a developing country context, it seems of outstanding importance to adopt a "community centred approach" (Misener and Mason, 2010) where communities have the power and control over decision-making and governance processes so to avoid currently widespread "hollow participation" (McCarthy and Muthuri, 2016;Mellahi and Wood, 2003) and allow for emancipation of the communities from corporate tutelage (McEwan et al, 2017).…”

Ghana-Korea Relations Research: A-State-of-the-Art Review

“…This has motivated some scholars as well as policy makers to search for plausible explanations. They include the publications of Werlin, (1991;1994;Kalu and Kim, 2014;Afesorgbor, 2014;Kim, 2015). For instance, Werlin in his 1991 publication pointed out that even though Ghana and South Korea had about the same annual per capita gdp in 1960, the latter's annual purchasing power per head was about ten times that of the former.…”

“…Under Rawlings, the country implemented Structural Adjustment Programmes (saps) have been widely imposed as a form of aid conditionality from 1984. The saps led to liberalisation of the external trade and financial sector regimes, the phasing out of price controls, measures to improve the financial performance of many stateowned enterprises, and the introduction of more competition (Kim, 2015). It also led to the stabilisation of prices, mainly through balanced budgets, market liberalisation, and public sector reform, all of which were aimed at creating a market-friendly environment (Tsikata, 2001).…”

An Investigation of the Effects of the Official Development Assistance on GDP Per Capita in Pakistan

“…The previous research on foreign aid and growth can be categorized into two separate parts. The empirical findings of some researcher showed that foreign aid accelerates financial growth (Kim, 2017). Others do not support this view (Mallik 2008;Herzer & Morrissey, 2013).…”