The Politics of Government-Business Relations in Ghana, 1982-2008

Since the early 1980s, the World Bank, backed by aid donor countries, has been involved in a determined effort to stimulate capitalist growth in Africa by prescribing a set of orthodox, neoliberal economic policies. Even in the relative success stories, such as in Ghana, there has been a notable failure to achieve the East Asian-style economic takeoff that some World Bank officials still optimistically envisioned in the early 1990s. Using Ghana as a case study, this book considers why this is the case, and what the implications are for the adequacy of orthodox, neoliberal policies.

Darko Kwabena Opoku is Visiting Assistant Professor in African American Studies at Oberlin College. He has published in Africa Today, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, and Commonwealth and Comparative Politics. His research interests include African political economy, state-capital relations in Africa, and the political economy of development.