ABSTRACT
The chapter introduces the controversy surrounding Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) review their rationale and impact in Africa; provide a critique of SAPs in relation to the African crisis; and assess the impact of the Asian crisis on the global debate with reference to Malaysia. Karl Polanyi provides a useful paradigm, which captures the underlying dynamics of a country's political economy. Since the aforementioned World Bank report authored by Elliot Berg opened proceedings, SAPs are based on the assumption that state interference is to blame for the internal and external imbalances that plague African economies. In the 1990s, according to the African Economic Report 1998 by the UN based Economic Commission for Africa, at about US$30 billion per year, subSaharan Africa now spends more on debt service than health and education. The case of Indonesia, for example, inspired a stunning criticism from the then World Bank Chief economist, Joe Stiglitz.
