Interest groups, economic policy, and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

in economic policy reform in sub-Saharan Africa. Individual sections examine some of the typical problems presented by reforms, as well as the difficulty groups are likely to have in overcoming collective problems; review the literature on business interests and economic policy in Africa; and discuss cases of the role of business interest groups in economic policy in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mauritius. The cases examined demonstrate a mixed record. In democratic Botswana, for example, Africa"s longest-running economic success story, organized business interests played, until recently, little role in policy-making. Yet in democratic Mauritius, also an economic success, interest groups have for several decades had regular, institutionalized consultations with the government on all important policy issues. Zimbabwe provides another case where interest groups, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries in particular, pushed the government to implement broad-reaching reforms that improved economic efficiency, although their influence was apparently short-lived. A final section of the paper draws on the case studies to outline some of the factors that may affect the ability of interest groups and civil society in Africa to serve as advocates for economic efficiency and growth. It argues that business interests are more likely to play a positive role in pushing for and sustaining growth-oriented reform when: the business class has matured in number and experience and broadened to the point where it represents a sizeable portion of the productive economy; exporting interests make up a substantial sector of the business class; business associations are broadly representative of the range of business interests in the country and have technical capacity and credibility; and government and business associations have institutionalized regular consultation.