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Scarcity, Choice and Public Policy in Middle Africa

University of California Press

Social scientists frequently appear to find themselves in a dilemma: how to remain true to the demands of their professional disciplines and how, at the same time, to identify with the needs and aspirations of the governments and peoples of Africa. As great as this conflict seems on the surface, the apparent gap between these two commitments could be reduced through altered theoretical framework. By focusing on policy analysis, both disciplinary and areal orientations can be juxtaposed, helping social scientists who are concentrating on the Third World to raise "the right questions."1 Thomas R. Dye's remark that "policy analysis might be labeled the 'thinking man's response' to demands that social science become more 'relevant' to the problems of our society" is as applicable to non-Western as to Western countries.2

Margaret L. Bates, review of Gwendolen M. Carter (ed.), National Unity and Regionalism in Eight African States, in American Political Science Review 61, no. 3 (September 1967): 824. Also see Henry L. Bretton, "Political Science Field Research in Africa," Comparative Politics 2, no. 3 (April 1970): 442.

Thomas R. Dye, Understanding Public Policy (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971),, p. 6.

Clearly, one way in which social scientists could make a substantial contribution to African development is by helping decision-makers to develop policy objectives and to implement programs to attain them. Rather than assuming a neutral and value-free stance, these analysts might adopt, or at least be sensitive to, the values that could facilitate the probing of complicated issues and the proposing of alternative courses of action to persons in positions of power and responsibility. "What is needed," assert Warren F. Ilchman and Norman T. Uphoff, "are some ways of assessing the comparative efficiency of policy alternatives and some means of formulating priorities."3 We agree, and we view a political economy framework as an appropriate analytical tool to deal with the dynamics of social change that require the formulation and ranking of priorities and the developing and implementing of policy alternatives. In an examination of the decisional choices by public authorities in achieving political, social, and economic goals, political economy offers a useful means of inquiring into the interaction between social, political, and economic organization and process. Such an emphasis on decisional choices orients a political economy approach more toward problem-solving than toward management or maintenance. 4

Policy analysis combines two critical disciplines that are central to an understanding of the process of transformation

Warren F. Ilchman and Norman T. Uphoff, The Political Economy of Change (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969), p. 11. Of course, as Robert A. Packenham points out such a policy-relevant approach tends to skirt around normative questions. "Political Development Research," in Michael Haas and Henry S. Kariel (eds.), Approaches to the Study of Political Science (Scranton: Chandler Publishing Co., 1970), pp. 179, 18687. For the normative issues from a neo Marxist point of view, see the essays in Richard Harris, The Political Economy of Africa (New York: Wiley, 1975).

See the excellent review by Robert T. Golembiewski, " 'Maintenance' and 'Task' as Central Challenges in Public Administration," Public Administration Review 34, no. 2 (March/April 1974): 16869. Also see Gary L. Wamsley and Mayer N. Zald, The Political Economy of Public Organizations (Toronto: D. C. Heath, 1973), pp. 1622. A brief but useful discussion of the scope of political economy is in Joel Joalladebu, "Restrained or Enlarged Scope for Political-Economy?" Journal of Economic Issues 9, no. 1 (March 1975).

occurring throughout Africa todaypolitical science and economics. Their interdependence is shown by the priorities set by decision-makers as well as by the problems of application they have encountered. Thus, even while placing considerable emphasis on productive efficiency, planners find themselves unable to isolate the economic factors they seek to influence from political rules and doctrines or social beliefs and habits.5 Insensitivity to the norms, values, and practices of pastoral people may actually hamper the production of meat or undermine the establishment of viable ranching schemes; similarly, inattention to locally held social stratification patterns may make the diffusion of technological innovation extremely difficult.6 Economic values, then, can only be effectively considered in a broader context, one which places heavy stress on both the political variable and the social-psychological environment.

In emphasizing the elements of choice in relation to political and economic resources, the "new" political economy serves as a theoretical model for two main groups: the students of developmental processes seeking analytical insights into the efficiency of resource mobilization and allocation in the particular time-place circumstances prevailing in various states, and the decision-maker searching for means to rank priorities, develop alternative policy designs, and choose and implement a specific policy program. Political economy, therefore, performs both analytic and prescriptive functions.7 It makes possible a fuller insight into the vital interplay between political and social process and organization, and economic practices.

Economic planning "may be described as the conscious effort of a central organization to influence, direct, and, in some cases, even control changes in the principal economic variables . . . consumption, investment, saving" (and production). See Michael P. Todaro, Planning Development (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 1.

Donald Rothchild, "Realist Perspectives on African Modernization," Africa Today 20, no. 4 (Fall 1973): 41. Also see Harold D. Lasswell, "The Policy Sciences of Development," World Politics 17, no. 2 (January 1965): 288.

Yehezkel Dror, "Some Diverse Approaches to Policy Analysis: A Partial Reply to Thomas Dye," Policy Studies Journal 1, no. 4 (Summer 1973): 258.

Consequently, political economy combines pure and applied social science research, and thus acquires a dual utility appealing to scholars and statesmen alike.

The social scientist or decision-maker utilizing the political economy approach must be wary of a number of possible pitfalls. Later we shall specifically examine the differences in the policy processes between developed and developing societies. Suffice it for now to point out some general problems in the way of easy application of this Western-based theoretical instrument to non-Western circumstances.

First, those utilizing a political economy framework must make a conscious effort to accept the existence and validity of different political cultures in which formal and informal decision rules are shaped. In this sense, it is unwise for them to minimize the variance in meanings which diverse societies give to such widely used terms...