ABSTRACT
The second half of the twentieth century has not been a period of economic advancement in sub-Saharan Africa despite the preoccupation among development economists and international development agencies with the securing of economic development in the Third World. In 1987, Fred McChesney suggested a much more active role for politicians—a role which arguably is directly relevant to the sub-Saharan African dictatorships—which he labeled rent extraction. Rent extraction predictably takes a much more pervasive form in the dictatorships, kleptocracies and single party states of sub-Saharan Africa. Rent extraction is a euphemism for a system of political extortion. McChesney developed the rent-extraction model within the framework of democratic politics. In contrast to Nigeria and Ghana, Kenya was populated prior to independence by a minority white settler community. During the period 1975–1985, the Ghanaian economy was beset with monetary instability, negative real interest rates, high marginal tax rates, rigid exchange rate controls and restrictive trade practices.
