Liberalisation Failed: Understanding Persistent State Power in the Burkinabè Cotton Sector from 1990 to 2004

Brian Dowd-Uribe

Development Policy Review, 2014, vol. 32, issue 5, 545-566

Abstract: type="main">

The literature characterises African states as unable to subvert pressure from the World Bank to liberalise their economies. This article contradicts this narrative by showing how Burkina Faso adopted a cotton-sector liberalisation plan that retained significant state control. It argues that French influence, the sequence of regional liberalisations, and an ideological shift at the World Bank opened up political space for Burkina Faso to propose alternative and more moderate liberalisation reforms – in this case, the inclusion of a producers' organisation in cotton governance rather than a privatisation of cotton-sector activities. Heavy involvement in the formation of the producers' organisation allowed the Burkinabè state to retain control of its cotton sector, paradoxically, via the full implementation of its liberalisation reforms.

Date: 2014
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