Book Review: business politics and the state in Africa: challenging the orthodoxies on growth and transformation,by Tim Kelsall

Arguing that much of Africa’s recent economic boom has been confined to unsustainable growth in primary commodities, this book contends that African economies need structural transformation into higher-­‐value manufacturing and services. While evidence from other regions emphasizes state action to overcome collective action problems and create the‘predictability’ necessary for structural transformation, conventional wisdom has deemed Africa’s neo-­‐patrimonial political culture too insalubrious an environment for the state to act effectively. This book challenges this view: there can be such a thing as developmental patrimonialism and it mobilizes an array of historical and contemporary material to lobby for stronger and smarter support for industrial policies.