ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that an interplay exists between these three broad problems, that in order to have economic success, institutions must be workable and accepted and conflicts over identity must not disturb the polity. From the orthodox perspective of the government, Cameroon has made considerable progress in solving the political problems it faced at independence, even though these problems are not yet totally overcome and a host of new difficulties has arisen. In its economy as in its polity, Cameroon has enjoyed relative success in coping with the problems it defined at independence, but they remain to be finally overcome, whereas new difficulties have arisen. The integration of Cameroon as a dependent appendage of the world capitalist economic system, construction of which began as early as with the slave trade and was completed in the colonial era, has proven to be an extremely powerful and enduring phenomenon.
