PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION IN ACEMOGLU AND ROBINSON IN ADRESSING EXTRACTIVE INSTITUTIONS IN AFRICA

SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Philosophy

CONTRIBUTORS:

Ezeador N. Chidimma
Nweke Charles

ABSTRACT:

The developing countries particularly the sub Saharan African countries over the years have been confronted with a lot of developmental challenges. These developmental challenges had led to this aged long question, why are some countries rich and others poor? Scholars like Fanon, Rodney and John Paulo blame colonialism while the biologist and the British historian Jared Diamond and Ian Morris attributed the cause to accidents of geography and ecology. This question equally attracted Acemoglu and Robison, in their book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty the authors argue that the rich nations of the world are rich because they managed to adopt inclusive institutions whereas the poor ones are poor because they inherited the same type of extractive institutions that existed during their colonial rule. Extractive institutions according to the authors are institutions that extract incomes and wealth from one subset of the society to benefit a different subset. Fascinating as their theory may sound, many scholars have criticized their theory arguing that Acemoglu and Robinson’s thesis does not properly deal with ideology and so does not explore the place of the forms of ideology that are part of the ultimate determinants of history. Secondly, Acemoglu and Robinson’s thesis failed to account or explained why Singapore which was in the list of the poorest countries was lifted from third world to first and importantly why Botswana one of the smallest countries in sub Saharan Africa managed to adopt inclusive institutions. This work employs hermeneutic method to interpret and examine some philosophical issues that are embedded in development notably ideology, the question of agency and circumstances, freedom, justice and choice. The Philosophical questions that propel this study are what are those issues that plague the philosophical mind in formulating development? What are the Philosophical interests in such areas; can there be any justifications in Philosophy studying development theories? The work argues that Acemoglu and Robinson’s idea of creative destruction will go a long way to bring sustained development in Africa but the transformation of agency is the primary step in the development of Africa; without this no proposed systems of development can succeed. This work concludes that there is a need to understand the metaphysical and epistemological issues that undergird human behaviour and human nature in formulating development theories. This will enhance appropriate evaluation and application of Acemoglu and Robinson’s idea of creative destruction for the betterment and development of Africa.