From quasi-revolutionaries to capitalist entrepreneurs: how the P/NDC changed the face of Ghanaian entrepreneurship

Opoku, Darko Kwabena

doi:10.1080/14662041003672528

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In the early 1990s, political and ideological resistance to private business-at least business with any semblance of autonomy vis-à-vis the state-remained pervasive across the continent: from Zimbabwe (Taylor 1999;Goodstein 2009); to Zambia (Rakner 2003); to Rwanda (Taylor and Orlando 2013), and elsewhere. Even in countries like Ghana, which had embraced a neoliberal model in 1983 (Kraus 2002;Arthur 2006;Opoku 2010), and Kenya (Arriola 2013), a quintessentially 'Afro-capitalist' state, there was innate hostility to private business outside of state strictures. Instead, political elites embraced only narrow benefits for co-ethnics and were considerably hostile to autonomous private sector growth.…”

Section: Globalization and An Emerging Capitalist Value Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capitalism and African business cultures

Taylor¹

2014

WIDER Working Paper

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Typescript prepared by Anna-Mari Vesterinen at UNU-WIDER. UNU-WIDER gratefully acknowledges the financial contributions to the research programme from the governments of Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.The World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) was established by the United Nations University (UNU) as its first research and training centre and started work in Helsinki, Finland in 1985. The Institute undertakes applied research and policy analysis on structural changes affecting the developing and transitional economies, provides a forum for the advocacy of policies leading to robust, equitable and environmentally sustainable growth, and promotes capacity strengthening and training in the field of economic and social policy-making. Work is carried out by staff researchers and visiting scholars in Helsinki and through networks of collaborating scholars and institutions around the world.

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Section: Globalization and An Emerging Capitalist Value Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capitalism and African business cultures

Taylor¹

2014

WIDER Working Paper

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“…77 69 Handley 2010, 180-184. 70 Kraus 2002;Arthur 2006;Opoku 2010. The elected NDC was preceded by the military government known as the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), which seized power in 1982 in a coup led by Rawlings.…”

Section: Improving Africa's Business Environment -Without Business Asmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence without Organizations: State-Business Relations and their Impact on Business Environments in Contemporary Africa

Taylor

2012

Bus. polit.

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Formal institutions such as business chambers have been assumed to be a key indicator of the health of state-business relations (SBR). Yet in Africa these organizations have seldom risen to the level of access and influence enjoyed by some of their counterparts elsewhere in the developing world. A number of recent studies of SBR in Africa continue to overstate the importance of business associations (BAs). Yet despite the widespread marginality of BAs in Africa, the receptiveness of African states to leading firms and business interests has increased markedly. While this poses certain risks of increased corruption, collusion and monopoly, the institutional and political environment for doing business has also improved, thereby fostering new opportunities for further business-related growth and business sector development among bona fide firms. Drawing on evidence from Zambia and elsewhere, this paper finds that the benefits provided to individual firms who enjoy state access can, paradoxically, contribute to an improved environment for other private sector actors whose interests are directly represented only in moribund formal associations. Even without strong BAs, when aided by the state, individual firms, and/or international actors, Africa's improved business environment has a salutary impact on growth.

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“…Even in countries like Ghana, which had embraced a neoliberal model in 1983 (Kraus 2002;Arthur 2006;Opoku 2010), and Kenya (Arriola 2013), a quintessentially 'Afro-capitalist' state, there was innate hostility to private business outside of state strictures. Instead, political elites embraced only narrow benefits for co-ethnics and were considerably hostile to autonomous private sector growth.…”

Section: Promoting Virtuous Circles: Government Policy and Private Sementioning

confidence: 99%

Capitalism and African Business Cultures

Taylor¹

2014

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

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Scholars and practitioners once commonly linked 'African culture' to a distinctive 'African capitalism', at odds with genuine capitalism and the demands of modern business. Yet contemporary African business cultures reveal that a capitalist ethos has taken hold within both state and society. The success and visibility of an emergent, and celebrated, class of African big business reveals that business and profit are culturally acceptable. Existing theories of African capitalism are ill-equipped to explain changes in African business cultures, which increasingly are as diverse as any across the globe. Further, at their core is a growing capacity for reproduction, as capitalists.

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From quasi-revolutionaries to capitalist entrepreneurs: how the P/NDC changed the face of Ghanaian entrepreneurship

Cited by 6 publications

References 13 publications

Capitalism and African business cultures

Capitalism and African business cultures

Influence without Organizations: State-Business Relations and their Impact on Business Environments in Contemporary Africa

Capitalism and African Business Cultures

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