Abstract

As part of conceptualizing a form of capitalism specific to the African continent, this paper offers an institutional study of the development of regulatory institutions in Africa, suggested by and suggestive to current theoretical accounts of regulation and its relationship to capitalism. Recent scholarship has sketched a vision of regulatory capitalism that has much traction in the now-emerged discipline of governance but less in that of economics. That vision depends upon functioning regulatory institutions and effective enforcement strategies. Drawing from both disciplines and from the varieties of capitalism literature, this paper examines how and to what extent the African continent can be characterized as a regulatory region.

One of the processes by which Africa has become a regulatory region is the founding of public regulatory agencies. Another is the growth and spread of firms and practices associated with regulatory capitalism. Reflective of these processes, attention at both national and regional levels within Africa to the establishment and operation of competition regimes, to complementary regulatory regimes (with attention here to the telecommunications and public procurement fields), and to the rise and significance of African regional economic communities provides evidence for envisioning Africa as a regulatory region. This evidence suggests that the exploration of a distinctively African variety of regulatory capitalism is warranted.

摘要

作为概念化特定于非洲大陆的资本主义形式的一部分，本文提供了有关非洲监管机构发展的制度研究，该研究由监管的现行理论解释及其与资本主义的关系提出和暗示。最近的学术研究勾勒出了监管资本主义的愿景，这种愿景在现在兴起的治理学科中具有很大的吸引力，而在经济学领域则没有那么大的吸引力。该愿景取决于有效的监管机构和有效的执法策略。本文从学科和资本主义文学的多样性中汲取了经验，研究了如何将非洲大陆表征为监管区域以及在何种程度上将其作为监管区域。

非洲成为监管区域的过程之一是建立公共监管机构。另一个是与监管资本主义有关的公司和实践的成长和传播。这些进程反映了非洲内部的国家和地区两级对竞争制度的建立和运作，互补的监管制度（这里是对电信和公共采购领域的重视）以及非洲区域经济的兴起和重要性的关注。社区为将非洲设想为监管区域提供了证据。这一证据表明，有必要探索一种独特的非洲监管资本主义形式。