IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bwp/bwppap/esid-012-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

China in Africa: Impacts and prospects for accountable development

Author

Listed:
  • Giles Mohan

Abstract

China is the major 'new' player in Africa and impacts on development and politics in numerous ways. The paper sets out an analytical framework which identifies the channels through which China engages with African development and the role the African state plays in mediating these interactions. We then apply this framework to three case studies that are emblematic of differing African state types. Analysis shows that China impacts on African development in multiple ways that go well beyond aid. A feature of this engagement is inter-elite brokerage which tends to bypass domestic channels of accountability and so undermines good governance. That said, in most cases it delivers much needed infrastructure which benefits wider society. Crucially, as civil and political society in Africa has started to contest this elitism we are seeing slightly more transparent attempts to negotiate the relationship. It concludes with an outline of emerging trends and future research themes for the short- to medium–term.

Suggested Citation

  • Giles Mohan, 2012. "China in Africa: Impacts and prospects for accountable development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-012-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:esid-012-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.effective-states.org/wp-content/uploads/working_papers/final-pdfs/esid_wp_12_mohan.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert H. Wade, 2011. "Emerging World Order? From Multipolarity to Multilateralism in the G20, the World Bank, and the IMF," Politics & Society, , vol. 39(3), pages 347-378, September.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer, 2011. "Are ‘New’ Donors Different? Comparing the Allocation of Bilateral Aid Between nonDAC and DAC Donor Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1950-1968.
    3. Raphael Kaplinsky & Mike Morris, 2009. "The Asian Drivers and SSA: Is There a Future for Export‐oriented African Industrialisation?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(11), pages 1638-1655, November.
    4. World Bank, 2009. "Economy-Wide Impact of Oil Discovery in Ghana," World Bank Publications - Reports 18903, The World Bank Group.
    5. Gu, Jing & Humphrey, John & Messner, Dirk, 2008. "Global Governance and Developing Countries: The Implications of the Rise of China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 274-292, February.
    6. S. Mahendra Dev, 2008. "India," Chapters, in: Anis Chowdhury & Wahiduddin Mahmud (ed.), Handbook on the South Asian Economies, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Sanusha Naidu, 2008. "India's Growing African Strategy," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(115), pages 116-128, March.
    8. Hensengerth, Oliver, 2011. "Interaction of Chinese institutions with host governments in dam construction: the Bui dam in Ghana," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2011, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    9. Wade, Robert H., 2011. "Emerging world order? From multipolarity to multilateralism in the G20, the World Bank, and the IMF," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38603, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Axel Dreher & Peter Nunnenkamp & Rainer Thiele, 2010. "Are 'New' Donors Different?," KOF Working papers 10-255, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    11. Kaplinsky, Raphael & Messner, Dirk, 2008. "Introduction: The Impact of Asian Drivers on the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 197-209, February.
    12. Clemens Six, 2009. "The Rise of Postcolonial States as Donors: a challenge to the development paradigm?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 1103-1121.
    13. Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer, 2010. "Are 'new' donors different? Comparing the allocation of bilateral aid between non-DAC and DAC donor," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 96, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    14. Bader, Julia, 2010. "Emerging powers in their regions: China’s impact on its neighbours’ political systems," Briefing Papers 1/2010, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    15. Bermeo, Sarah Blodgett, 2011. "Foreign Aid and Regime Change: A Role for Donor Intent," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 2021-2031.
    16. Peter Kragelund, 2008. "The Return of Non-DAC Donors to Africa: New Prospects for African Development?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 26(5), pages 555-584, September.
    17. Harry G. Broadman, 2007. "Africa's Silk Road : China and India's New Economic Frontier," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7186, December.
    18. Grimm, Sven & Höß, Heike & Knappe, Katharina & Siebold, Marion & Sperrfechter, Johannes, 2011. "Coordinating China and DAC development partners: challenges to the aid architecture in Rwanda," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 56, number 56.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nico Olivier, 2014. "Between Contradiction and Co-operation: An Analysis of China’s Evolving Engagement with Africa," Insight on Africa, , vol. 6(1), pages 15-42, January.
    2. Sam Hickey, 2012. "Thinking about the politics of inclusive development: towards a relational approach," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-001-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Frederick Golooba-Mutebi & Sam Hickey, 2013. "Investigating the links between political settlements and inclusive development in Uganda: towards a research agenda," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-020-13, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniele Pianeselli, 2016. "Does The one who pays the piper really call the tune? OECD and Chinese aid to infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0204, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    2. Carmody, Pádraig, 2009. "An Asian-Driven Economic Recovery in Africa? The Zambian Case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1197-1207, July.
    3. Angelika J. Budjan & Andreas Fuchs, 2021. "Democracy and Aid Donorship," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 217-238, November.
    4. Fuchs, Andreas & Klann, Nils-Hendrik, 2013. "Emergency Aid 2.0," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79898, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Pierluigi Montalbano & Silvia Nenci, 2014. "The Trade Competitiveness of Southern Emerging Economies: A Multidimensional Approach Through Cluster Analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 783-810, June.
    6. Rory Horner & David Hulme, 2017. "Converging divergence? Unpacking the new geography of 21st century global development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 102017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    7. Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 180-207.
    8. Peter Nunnenkamp & Rainer Thiele, 2013. "Financing for Development: The Gap between Words and Deeds since Monterrey," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 31(1), pages 75-98, January.
    9. Cheng, Gong, 2015. "The Global Financial Safety Net through the Prism of G20 Summits," MPRA Paper 68070, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Nov 2015.
    10. Simon Hartmann & Thomas Lindner & Jakob Müllner & Jonas Puck, 2022. "Beyond the nation-state: Anchoring supranational institutions in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1282-1306, August.
    11. Vestergaard, Jakob & Wade, Robert H., 2013. "Protecting Power: How Western States Retain The Dominant Voice in The World Bank’s Governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 153-164.
    12. Matthias Busse & Ceren Erdogan & Henning Mühlen, 2016. "China's Impact on Africa – The Role of Trade, FDI and Aid," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 228-262, May.
    13. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C. & Aminkeng, Gilbert A. A, 2014. "China’s Strategies in Economic Diplomacy: A Survey of Updated Lessons for Africa, the West and China," MPRA Paper 65304, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Tana Johnson & Johannes Urpelainen, 2020. "The more things change, the more they stay the same: Developing countries’ unity at the nexus of trade and environmental policy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 445-473, April.
    15. Christensen, Rasmus Corlin & Hearson, Martin, 2021. "The Rise of China and Contestation in Global Tax Governance," SocArXiv pzvy3, Center for Open Science.
    16. Asmus, Gerda & Eichenauer, Vera & Fuchs, Andreas & Parks, Bradley, 2021. "Does India use development finance to compete with China? A subnational analysis," Kiel Working Papers 2189, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Simplice A. Asongu & Gilbert A.A. Aminkeng, 2013. "The economic consequences of China--Africa relations: debunking myths in the debate," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 261-277, November.
    18. Čelesnik Goran & Radujković Mladen & Vrečko Igor, 2018. "Resolving Companies in Crisis: Agile Crisis Project Management," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 51(4), pages 223-237, December.
    19. Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2017-011, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    20. Eric Tremolada Álvarez, 2018. "La Cooperación Internacional como alternativa a los unilateralismos. colección Ius Cogens n.° 6," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1037, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:esid-012-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Rowena Harding (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wpmanuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.