Abstract
Why, how and when does institutional or political change occur in Africa? By examining the postcolonial African strategies for economic development, and focusing on the evolution of the role of the State, the present article proposes an explanation of institutional change with a special focus on political and institutional innovations. In fact, behind the apparent continuity that most analytical and normative authors critique, there are innovations that can be analysed in a heuristic manner, using ideational, strategic, temporal and institutional variables. This article thus proposes a new comparative analysis of the role of international, regional, and national actors in the emergence and the trajectories of development strategies in Africa. The favorable temporal contexts, the crises of the preceding models, the structuring configurations and institutional heritage, the instrumental strategies of the interested actors, the political learning, the cognitive and normative dimensions of the ideas contribute to explaining the diffusion and institutional sedimentation and conversion as privileged processes of innovation in Africa. The critique of these concepts makes it possible to develop tools better adapted to explaining change -institutional inclusion (semi-strategic and semi-ideational) and institutional intrusion (semi-strategic and semistructural) - and renew the explanation of the complex relationship between national, regional, and international actors. The present article renews the discussion on change, especially political and institutional innovation in Africa and political science.
Translated title of the contribution | Ideas, interests, institutions, time and political innovations in Africa |
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Original language | French |
Pages (from-to) | 735-743 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Innovation Journal |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 2 |
State | Published - 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Administration