ABSTRACT

In the last chapter we analysed the emergence of Lomé and we underlined the idiom of interdependence and “mutual interests” which defined the political basis of EC-African relations. In this chapter we consider the changes in EC development policy since the beginning of the 1980s. We shall examine in particular the emergence of “policy dialogue” under Lomé III and its culmination in the new politics of structural adjustment under Lomé IV. Our central argument in this chapter is that the emergence of adjustment and “policy dialogue” marks a qualitative shift from the norms of interdependence and formal equality which had underpinned the Lomé aid regime in the previous decade.