Botswana, a Model for Development in Africa?

Douglas Bove

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Alcock, Frank

Keywords

Development, Africa, Economic Growth

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

The crisis of underdevelopment in Africa is reaching a critical level. These countries, on average, posted the lowest levels of growth in GDP, GDP per capita income, and output, while, simultaneously seeing poverty, disease, unemployment, inflation, and income inequality rise at some of the highest rates in the world for the period 1960-1988 despite high endowments of natural resources and high levels of trade. One country in Sub-Saharan Africa, however, has bucked the trend and shown that the problem may not be purely "African" in nature. Since independence, Botswana has had the highest average economic growth rate in the world, averaging about 9% per year from 1966 to 1999. Botswana�s economic performance has been built on a foundation of diamond mining, prudent fiscal policies, international financial and technical assistance, and a cautious foreign policy. This thesis seeks to investigate Botswana�s growth performance over the past 35 years in an effort to identify a more general model for development in Africa.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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