Description
Book SynopsisThis book challenges assumptions that poor post-colonial economic performance is always a direct product of colonialism by reconsidering the Belgian Congo (19081959) as a developmental state.
The book demonstrates that despite the colonial system's economic exploitation and extraction, brutality, excessive taxation, and inequities, the Belgian Congo achieved successes in developing the economy in a short period of time. The Belgian Congo was able to achieve this by investing its higher rates of fiscal revenue in political stability, physical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. By reconsidering the Belgian colonial state as a developmental state, this book encourages scholars to adopt a more nuanced analysis of African history. Considering state capacity and state autonomy as key features of a developmental state, the book demonstrates that colonial state managers in the Belgian Congo were able to supply these public goods that sustained economic growth for decades. Whil
Table of Contents
1. An overview of the argument, 2. The Leopoldian State and economy of plunder, 3. Political order and rule of law in the Belgian Congo, 4. Belgian Congo and basic infrastructure for economic development, 5. Property rights and economic development, 6. Revenue imperative, state building, and economic development, 7. From Mobutu to Mobutu and hubris syndrome, 8. From an anarchic to a criminal state, 9. The Belgian Congo state in comparative perspective, Conclusion
