Globalization's Paradoxical Impact on State-Society Relations in Africa

By Kidane Mengisteab

Introduction

Incorporation of African economies into the global capitalist system under old globalization profoundly changed African societies. New globlalization has also begun to impact African societies in significant ways. This paper attempts to explore how the new phase of globalization has impacted African countries in general and their state-society relations in particular. The paper has three parts. The first briefly conceptualizes globalization. The second outlinese the different historical stages of incorporation of African economies into the global system and briefly sketches how old globalization changed African societies. The third part conceptualizes state-society relations and explores how the post-Cold War phase of globalization has impacted these relations in Africa.

Published: Saturday, May 01, 2004

To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser.