Structural Transformation by Defiance!Reclaiming the Developmental Role of State Elites

The discourse on postcolonial development is rich in lamentations on what went developmentally wrong in Africa, but is weak on what needs to be done differently to reclaim development policy-space. State Watch-Afrika, a digital platform for dissecting the political economy of Africa, positions itself as a refreshing departure from the orthodoxy. The initiative draws inspiration from heterodox institutional analysis. It draws inspiration from the primacy of economic nationalism over premature economic liberalism. It is also inspired by the changing but not ending role of developmental state elites even in the current age of disruptive digital technologies. In these respects, State Watch-Afrika is manifestly non-conventional.