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Diamonds or development? A structural assessment of Botswana's forty years of success

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

Ellen Hillbom
Ellen Hillbom*
Affiliation:
Department of Economic History, Lund University, P.O. Box 7083, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden
*
Email: ellen.hillbom@ekh.lu.se
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Abstract

Due to its four decades of high long-term economic growth and democratic system, Botswana has been depicted as an exceptional success story in a region full of economic and political failures. In this article, a structural analysis is applied, and it is argued that Botswana's success should be understood as one of pre-modern growth without development. It is claimed that although the country may be a growth miracle, it has not yet experienced ‘modern economic growth’, characterised by structural change in patterns of production as well as in social and political institutions. Such analysis also offers an explanation for the duality of Botswana's economy and society, since pre-modern growth, as opposed to development, allows for significant poverty rates and extremely unequal resource and income distribution to prevail in the midst of plenty.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 191 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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