Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication Title

Development Policy Review

Volume

36

Issue

5

First Page

587

Keywords

Angola, developmental state, oil, industrialization, structural transformation, Africa

Last Page

606

Abstract

From 2002-2013, Angola engaged in large-scale state-led reconstruction and development alongside an elite-led appropriation and seizure of national assets. Until the oil price shock, Angola had been succeeding in promoting rapid economic growth and possibly even significant social development alongside a massive grab of wealth and power by local elites. Today, though an economic crisis has taken hold, frequent predictions of the country’s immanent collapse have yet to be fulfilled. This paper reviews the state’s development planning and expenditure with a focus on public investment and industrial development to determine to what extent Angola during this period might have been considered a developmental or petro-developmental state. It is argued that, while more significant than generally thought, petro-developmental outcomes were and are limited by the autocratic and neopatrimonial tendencies of the Angolan elite. Nevertheless, limited success with structural transformation may have lasting effects. Following its long civil war, the conditions existed for Angola to follow a new path of state-led development. However more difficult it may now be, structural transformation and economic diversification remain the only path to economic and social development.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12249

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