Lauren M. MacLean

State Retrenchment and the Exercise of Citizenship in Africa

What explains the varied ways that Africans practice citizenship on an everyday basis? And how does the extent of state building (or neoliberal unbuilding) in a particular context affect the way individual Africans think about the rights, duties, and appropriate channels for exercising their citizenship? Over the past 20 years across most of sub-Saharan Africa, neoliberal economic reform has meant a major retrenchment of the state in the provision of health and education services. This article argues that Africans who have at least some experience with public schools and clinics are more likely to exercise their citizenship on a more frequent basis than those who have no experience of state social services at all. The article confirms the existence of policy feedbacks between the micro experience of state social policy and democratic consolidation in Africa.

Democracy and the Distribution of NGOs Promoting Renewable Energy in Africa

Abstract Roughly 60 per cent of Africans lack access to electricity, negatively impacting development opportunities. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have started promoting distributed generation – small-scale, localised electricity generation – to change this situation. Despite widespread need, however, the dispersion of these distributed generation NGOs (DG-NGOs) is uneven, with high concentrations in a few African countries. Drawing on an original database and field research, we analyse location variation among DG-NGOs across the continent. We find that DG-NGOs are likely to operate in democratic settings with large populations that lack access to electricity. International DG-NGOs are also likely to operate where aid allocation levels are relatively high.

Global Renewable Electricity Policy: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Countries by Income Status

Abstract Although the drivers of renewable electricity (RE) are well-established among Western high-income countries, little is known about the factors that encourage RE development elsewhere. This paper analyzes an unprecedented, original dataset of 149 countries from 1990 to 2010 to compare the policy instruments and other factors that influence RE adoption across low-, middle-, and high-income countries. We find the factors driving RE development vary both across income group and between hydroelectric and non-hydro generation. Most notably for environmental concerns, non-hydroelectric RE generation is driven by feed-in-tariffs and renewable portfolio standards in high-income countries, feed-in tariffs alone in middle-income countries, and by subsidies in low-income countries. Non-policy drivers of RE also vary by country income level.

Neoliberal democratisation, colonial legacies and the rise of the non-state provision of social welfare in West Africa

ABSTRACT This article explores the rise of the non-state provision of social welfare in West Africa. Over the past three decades, a range of non-state actors, including secular non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations, for-profit businesses and informal networks have provided access to basic social services such as education and health care even more extensively than states. The article asks: why has the number of non-state providers increased so markedly across Africa, and why do the predominant types of non-state providers vary in different countries? The author argues that neoliberal democratisation during the 1980s and 1990s created new opportunities and spaces for non-state providers. Yet, an analysis of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia shows that colonial legacies have mediated the numbers and types of non-state actors on the ground. The conclusion highlights how this growth in non-state provision has significant negative consequences for citizens’ ability to obtain equitable access to and accountability for social welfare services.