Why Continued Poverty and Deprivation in Africa?
Several reasons have been advanced to explain Africa’s continued underdevelopment, including both internal and external obstacles. The latter include the economic policies of the industrial market economies, an international financial system that is unfriendly to Africa, and natural disasters. Internal constrains to development include corruption and other forms of political opportunism, political instability, excessive population growth, low savings rates, destructive ethnic conflict, the burden of external debts, economic dependence, military coups, and poorly developed economic infrastructures. Many researchers have also argued that poverty in Africa arises from policy mistakes made by honest, but poorly trained and incompetent leaders. Thus, there is a call for more effective leadership, especially in the policy arena. If, however, Africa’s underdevelopment is viewed from a public choice perspective, it becomes evident that many of the so-called policy mistakes of the post-independ
