ABSTRACT

Existing models of capitalist transformation have nearly always prioritised an analysis of domestic capital in shaping economic trajectories. Yet, even as industrial policy has been re-imagined in Africa, the potential contribution of domestic capital has remained marginal in academic analysis and policy discussions. The prevailing assumptions are that African capital is either non-existent or too weak to influence the policies of African governments. However, there is evidence within nascent literature that large African-owned businesses continue to influence the trajectory of capitalist transformation within their countries. This paper examines why the study of African capitalists – popular in the 1980s and 1990s – has remained dormant. This paper makes the case for analysing the politics driving the activity of large African-owned firms through researching the politics of diversified business groups (DBGs). Arguing that DBGs are the predominant form that large-scale domestic investment takes on the continent, the paper introduces an inductively-informed typology of African DBGs. The framework shows how domestic political economy (and the politics of state-business relations, in particular) shapes the form and trajectories of diversification of domestic business groups.

摘要

资本主义转型的现有模型几乎总是优先考虑对国内资本的分析来塑造经济轨迹。然而，即使在非洲重新构想了产业政策，国内资本的潜在贡献在学术分析和政策讨论中仍然微不足道。普遍的假设是，非洲资本要么不存在，要么太弱，无法影响非洲政府的政策。然而，新生文献中有证据表明，大型非洲企业继续影响其国内资本主义转型的轨迹。本文探讨了为什么对非洲资本家的研究——在 1980 年代和 1990 年代流行——一直处于休眠状态。本文通过研究多元化商业集团 (DBG) 的政治，为分析推动非洲大型企业活动的政治提供了理由。该论文认为 DBG 是非洲大陆大规模国内投资的主要形式，因此介绍了一种归纳通知的非洲 DBG 类型。该框架显示了国内政治经济（尤其是国企关系的政治）如何塑造国内商业集团多元化的形式和轨迹。