The politics of public policy in Africa

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Does policy proceed politics, or is it politics that proceeds policy? Although seemingly simple, these questions are analytically complex. Indeed, since independence beginning with Development Administration strategies to democratisation pressures through different governance principles ranging from New Public Management (NPM) to sustainable development, they have been at the centre of political-administrative reforms in Africa. This chapter discusses the policy-politics relationship. Doing so examines conceptual trajectories that public policy and administration in Africa have traversed since the early post-colonial era. It argues that the politics of public policy and administration in Africa has travelled along three conceptual paths. In the first phase, public policymaking was mainly elitist with a highly state-centric, centralised, and paternalistic administrative strategy. The second phase witnessed the imposition of specific policy ideas by a coalition of transnational actors using conditionality-based lending to compel compliance. Service delivery was entrusted to private sector actors. The third phase emphasised participatory policymaking, while its public administration strategy emphasised public-private partnerships.