By Saio Marrah
Professor Stefan Dercon has during discussions on a chapter of his book “Gambling on Development: Why some countries win and others lose” which captures Sierra Leone’s economy, said it appears that over the period, the overall economic policies which various leaders pursued were not sensible for economic growth.
He argued that it is not just corruption that leads to bad economy,and drew reference to countries like Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Ghana and Ethiopia where he said corruption thrives, but they did what he described sensible policies that became quite reasonable things for economic growth over time.
He said while some other countries are not being able to get theirs correctly the Belgian writer also pointed out that it takes a concerted effort of a dominant coalition of elites in a country to revamp the economy of a country.
That responsibility he said is not solely on the traditional leader or president, a minster, or central bank governor of a particular country.
The dominant coalition of elites he said should include dominant business people, members of civil society, the journalists, intellectuals, and heads of dominant political parties and host of others, whom he described as the driving force.
According to him, those are the actual people that control the power in a country who determined the way forward for economic growth.
He further emphasized that it also takes a longer period to achieve such economic growth.
The professor also noted that it is not also about a country being democratic or not, while making reference to China, whose economy started revamping in the 1970s, but is still the same political party that has been in power throughout that period.
He also made reference to Ghana with a democratic system of governance, but has turned their economy around.
The author said for Ghana, the two dominant parties had common ground in revamping the economy of the country. Thus, he affirmed that the restoration of a country’s economy lies in the dominant coalition of elites.
According to him, those dominant elites love power and money, but that they have to priorities a common goal, while making reference to the current Chinses president whom he said had he focused on helping only his family members or friends, the over 800 million Chinese in extreme poverty by then would still remain the same.
He said for long-term stability every government should embrace the good ideas devoid of which party pioneered the said project.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (12/02/24)
