AFRICAN STATES IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY: POWER, COMPLIANCE, AND POLICY TRANSFER IN NIGERIA, GHANA, AND KENYA, 2015-2025
Keywords:
African States, Compliance, Global Political Economy, Institutional Political Economy, Policy Transfer, Power AsymmetryAbstract
African states operate within a global political economy characterised by significant asymmetries in financial, institutional, and rule-making power. This study examines how these structural inequalities shape African states’ compliance with external rules and the transfer of economic and governance policies, and assesses their implications for development and policy autonomy. Anchored in Institutional Political Economy and Dependency Theory, the study analyses the mechanisms through which global financial and governance institutions influence domestic policy choices while interacting with national political interests and institutional conditions. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative comparative research design focusing specifically on Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, three African states with substantial histories of engagement with International Financial Institutions (IFIs), externally promoted economic reforms, and global governance frameworks. The analysis draws on approximately twenty five documents and scholarly sources, comprising IMF and World Bank programme documents and reports, national policy and development strategy documents, publications of African regional institutions, and relevant peer-reviewed scholarly literature. The findings demonstrate that compliance is driven less by direct coercion than by structural dependence on external finance, reputational pressures within global markets, and the incentives of domestic political elites. Policy transfer occurs principally through conditionality, technical assistance, policy learning, and emulation, but rarely produces uniform outcomes. Instead, differences in domestic institutional capacity, political interests, and resistance generate selective adoption, policy hybridisation, implementation gaps, and symbolic compliance across Africa. The study concludes that African states are neither wholly passive rule-takers nor fully autonomous actors. It recommends regionally coordinated bargaining, selective and context-sensitive policy adaptation, and stronger domestic institutional capacity to enhance African agency and improve developmental outcomes within the global political economy.
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