ABSTRACT
By the mid-to-late 1980s, barely two decades after decolonization on much of the African continent, a new process of economic policy reform became a defining characteristic across the African continent mainly in response to the “crisis of development.” What was the nature of policies implemented across the continent during the period of reform? What were the interplay of factors and actors driving these reforms? What have been the implications of the implementation of economic reform policies for the continent’s postcolonial developmental and transformative agenda? This conceptual chapter explores how an interplay of domestic and international political and economic processes and actors have influenced and shaped Africa’s postcolonial developmental vision through the implementation of specific sets of policy reforms. In doing so, and in order to provide an intellectual context for some of the discussions raised in the book, this chapter provides a broad overview of competing theoretical approaches to policy reform historically, showing how the current neoliberal policy agenda became a hegemonic construct in Africa’s postcolonies from the 1980s. It also specifies Ghana’s experiences as political actors and factors in this West African state impact its evolving economic policy.
