This book challenges assumptions that poor post-colonial economic performance is always a direct product of colonialism by reconsidering the Belgian Congo (1908–1959) as a developmental state.
The book demonstrates that despite the colonial system’s economic exploitation and extraction, brutality, excessive taxation, and inequities, the Belgian Congo achieved successes in developing the economy in a short period of time. The Belgian Congo was able to achieve this by investing its higher rates of fiscal revenue in political stability, physical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. By reconsidering the Belgian colonial state as a developmental state, this book encourages scholars to adopt a more nuanced analysis of African history. Considering state capacity and state autonomy as key features of a developmental state, the book demonstrates that colonial state managers in the Belgian Congo were able to supply these public goods that sustained economic growth for decades. Whilst by no means glorifying colonialism or the atrocities that were conducted during the Belgian occupation, the book nonetheless outlines how different forms of capitalism were deployed to further economic development in the country. In contrast, predatory state managers of the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and post-colonial kleptocrats (1960–2018) have squandered Congo’s natural resources with disastrous economic and social consequences.
Contrasting the Belgian Congo with colonies of settlement and other colonies of extraction, this book encourages researchers and students to reconsider the dominant narratives within colonial history, development, and African Studies.
Author(s): Emizet François Kisangani
Series: Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 276
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
1 An Overview of the Argument
A Brief Historical Overview From the CFS to the Postcolonial State
A Critical Assessment of the Belgian Congo Developmental State
Political Constraints and Economic Development
Plan of the Book
Notes
References
2 The Leopoldian State and Economy of Plunder
Political Order and Rule of Law in an Absolute Monarchy
The Army Or Force Publique (FP)
European Administration, Traditional Authorities, and the Catholic Church
State–business Linkage and Political Order
Recapitulation
Delivery of Basic Infrastructure
Supply of Physical Infrastructure
Social Infrastructure
From Communal Property Rights to State Monopoly
Revenue Collection and State Goals
Tax Collection
Nontax Revenue
Taxation, State Building, and Economy
Summary
Notes
References
3 Political Order and Rule of Law in the Belgian Congo
Christian Missionaries
Army and Police
Colonial Administration and Rule of Law
Summary
Notes
References
4 Belgian Congo and Basic Infrastructure for Economic Development
Flexible Economic Planning and Delivery of Infrastructure
Transportation and Economic Development
Import Substitution and Metallurgical Mining Industrialization
Supply and Consumption of Energy in the Development Process
Social Infrastructure and Economic Development
Summary
Notes
References
5 Property Rights and Economic Development
Property Rights in the Agricultural Sector
Property Rights in the Mining Sector
Toward Independence and the Passing of State Financial Portfolio Holdings
Summary
References
6 Revenue Imperative, State Building, and Economic Development
Revenue Structure and State Capacity
Direct Taxes and State Building
A Brief Overview of Indirect Taxes
Non-tax Revenue
Tax Regime and the IS Process
Summary
References
7 From Mobutu to Mobutu and Hubris Syndrome
The Fragile First Republic (1960–1965)
Political Order and Rule of Law
The Army and the New Administration
Traditional Authorities and the Catholic Church
State–business Interactions
Physical and Social Infrastructure
Property Rights Under the First Republic
Revenue Imperative and State Capacity
Direct and Indirect Taxes
Non-tax Revenue
Mobutu and the Hubris Syndrome Against Economic Development
Political Order and Rule of Law
Party-state, Bureaucracy, Chieftaincy, and the Catholic Church
Decaying Basic Infrastructure, State Collapse, and Underdevelopment
Major Causes of Decaying Basic Infrastructure
Mobutu Against Foreign Private Ownership
Round II of the Belgian-Congolese Contentieux and the UMHK
Social Justice Or Theft of Foreign Private Assets
Revenue Scarcity, State Failure, and Economic Collapse
Taxes and Non-Tax Revenue
Summary
Notes
References
8 From an Anarchic to a Criminal State
Political Order and Rule of Law
The UN, the Military, and the Administration
Traditional Authorities and the Catholic Church
Impact of Political Instability On Economic Development
Decayed Infrastructure and Economic Collapse
Physical Infrastructure and Evidence
Human Capital and Health
Failure to Supply Basic Infrastructure in the Third Republic
Property Rights in a Criminal State
Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining
SOEs and the Mining Sector
Revenue Imperative and State-Building
Summary
Notes
References
9 The Belgian Congo State in Comparative Perspective
Better Institutions and Economic Development
Supply of Political Order and Rule of Law
Basic Infrastructure for Economic Development
Physical Infrastructure
Human Capital and Healthcare
Property Rights
Mining, Manufacturing, and Economic Development
Revenue Imperative, State Building, and Economic Development
Notes
References
Conclusion
Notes
Index
