NEOLIBERALISM AND INTERVENTION PHILOSOPHY IN AFRICA: MYTH OF UNDERDIFFERENTIATION

Abstract

A plethora of topics has been examined within the neoliberal discourse.In Africa, most of these bear, in one way or another, on the adverse consequences of the neoliberal turn. But the neoliberal impact can never be understood separate from contextual and socio-historical configurations. Through a critical reading of both empirical and theoretical literature on neoliberalism, this paper shows that, ultimately, it is the same old intervention philosophy– motivated by the same old social evolutionary thinking –that still drives the neoliberal policy thrust. We lean on the complexity theory to contend that the failures of neoliberalism in Africa are neither due to lack of adequate knowledge of how to implement it nor the political will to do so, but tothe fact that the programme is being deployed, without due modification, to social settings for which it is not suited. Development anthropologists are convinced that the best strategy for change is to base the social designs on the local social form in each target area. There is no alternative tobasing the plans and policies for progress across African societies on theeconomic peculiarities of the different local settings. One-size-shoe-fits-all short cuts have never worked anywhere.