The dominant developmental approach in Africa over the last twenty years has been to advocate the role of markets and the private sector in restoring economic growth. Recent thinking has also stressed the need for 'ownership' of economic reform by the populations of developing countries, particularly the business community. This book studies the business-government interactions of four African countries: Ghana, Zambia, South Africa and Mauritius. Employing a historical institutionalist approach, Antoinette Handley considers why and how business in South Africa and Mauritius has developed the capacity to constructively contest the making of economic policy while, conversely, business in Zambia and Ghana has struggled to develop any autonomous political capacity. Paying close attention to the mutually constitutive interactions between business and the state, Handley considers the role of timing and how ethnicised and racialised identities can affect these interactions in profound and consequential ways.

‘A very serious and illuminating piece of scholarship about a strangely ignored topic in Africa. Handley has a clear and compelling theoretical argument that is nicely grounded in the cross-regional literature about state-business relationships and development. Her four country case studies on Ghana, Zambia, Mauritius, and South Africa are well done and based on real on-the-ground research – rare these days and certainly for this topic and place. At the same time, these fine empirical chapters always keep the historical context clearly in focus. Given the efforts at reforming African economies since the 1980s, this topic is absolutely central to any discussion of Africa’s future. A fine book that really plugs Africa into the ongoing cross-regional debates about development.’

Thomas M. Callaghy - University of Pennsylvania