TITLE:
Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Stagnation and Decline in the 1980s
AUTHORS:
Ana Paula F. Mendes, Mario A. Bertella
KEYWORDS:
Sub-Saharan Africa, Stagnation, Underdevelopment
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.10 No.11,
November
20,
2019
ABSTRACT: After independence, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a
rapid succession of economic, social and political issues. The magnitude of this
crisis has led to attempts by international organizations and political
economists to explain with two prevailing approaches: an internalist one and an
externalist one. The externalist perspective predominantly attributed the
responsibility of this crisis to deteriorating terms of trade and the
instability of international markets, while the internalist one blamed mainly
local policies. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in this literature,
bringing the contribution of structural and historical factors. A weak
institutional base, the low quality of human capital, and corruption created
conditions for misguided sectoral strategies and unsustainable economic
policies, making the productive sector unable to generate momentum in the
economy and, therefore, producing economic and social stagnation in the region.