ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes some of the key economic institutions and organizations through which economies in Africa function. It begins with an examination of the role of "social capital" and property rights. "Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction. Trust is embedded in formal and informal social and economic institutions and does much to shape people's economic behavior in those institutions as well as through markets. A central institution of relevance to the general economic development of African countries involves property rights, that is, the rights to possess, use and transfer property and especially "land tenure" for agricultural land in rural areas. The place of the state and state planning relative to the "market mechanism" as central coordinating mechanisms for the process of economic development has been highly contentious among observers and analysts and frequently at the center of political debate in many countries.
