2011/06/03 by Michael Kpessa, Michael Kpessa-Whyte, Daniel Béland +1
Social Sciences · #Development economics #Economic growth #Economics #Ethnic group #Independence (probability theory) #International Development and Aid #Law #National Unity #Nationalism #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Public administration #Religion, Society, and Development #Retrenchment #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Sociology #Solidarity #State (computer science)
paper · doi:10.1080/01419870.2011.574717
openalex publication_date 2011/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the decline of state-level integration and solidarity, which helped trigger territorial mobilization and fragmentation. As a consequence, the politics of welfare retrenchment in SSA does more than simply reduce benefits and increase inequalities; it also potentially weakens national unity.