‘Sail on, O Ship of State’: Neo‐Liberalism, Globalisation and the Governance of Africa

Abstract

Contrary to many claims, the World Bank's 1997 Development Report The State in a Changing World is no radical departure from neo‐liberal development principles. Rather, it marks the culmination of the Bank's gradual move away from crude anti‐statism to its ‘good governance’ discursive efforts to ‘get the state right’ in its quest for a solution to the post‐1970s development crisis. This article examines The State in a Changing World from within the Bank's discourse on the role of the state and its managers, and current academic discussions of the ‘third world’ state and globalisation. It is difficult for these realms of discourse to construct a hegemonic vision of ‘development’ in the current conjuncture — particularly while the Bank remains hostage to private capital markets. Perspectives on the role of the state with deeper than Hayekian neo‐liberal roots must go beyond the contradictory melange of anti‐statism and managerialism which make up the current discourse of ‘neo‐statism’. However, such alterations take place within much larger realms of transformation than analyses such as the 1997 report consider.