CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Barabás, Andrea |
|---|---|
| Title | CAN THE EUROPEAN UNION SAVE AFRICA? THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF SENEGAL AND MALI |
| Summary | Despite the continued exposure to European influence since the decolonization period in terms of both trade and development, in the 1960s-1980s, the sub-Saharan African region attained negative growth and ever since then “their economic development in terms of per capita growth has been marginal” (Flint 49). This phenomenon was accompanied by trade liberalization, privatization, the liberalization of capital account transactions, investment promotion, the abolition of domestic monopolies together with a philosophy of state minimalism (Nixson 322.) from the part of the EU and of course, gradually growing aid inflows, which approximately took a stunning sum of 78, 362 billion euros from the third European Development Fund until the latest one, however, it had limited effect on the region and continues to do so. While African economies try to cope with the demands of the world market and growing international competition, cyclically, almost every four or five years, the general Western perceptions about the future of African development change. In the past years a positive economic attitude coupled with an average investor confidence is observed, which is largely attributable to domestically-led growth rather than the outcome of external assistance as it turned out from the special issue of the Economist of March, 2013 or before that, the 2012 IMF Report. The latter predicted that sub-Saharan Africa would be the world’s fastest growing region in 2013 and 2014 whereas the former praises the gradually improving social indicators such as reducing HIV prevalence but improving school enrolment and wider mobile and internet coverage coupled with better business opportunities. Parallel to these highly favourable voices, others claim that dependency on Europe is gradually falling, as the overall trade of Africa shifts towards non-European countries (Minto, 2012). |
| Supervisor | Csaba, László |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/barabas_andrea.pdf |
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