Joe Studwell is Senior Visiting Fellow at the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI). A freelance journalist for over twenty years, he has a PhD from University of Cambridge and is the author of The China Dream, Asian Godfathers and How Asia Works. He lives in Cambridge.
In a nutshell, this book argues that the relative poverty of the African continent derives from three historical factors. The first, and most important, is chronically low population density – the result of uniquely African conditions – that has made economic development all but impossible in the absence of concentrated markets and adequate labour supplies, as well as unfeasibly expensive in terms of per capita infrastructure costs. Africa is only now becoming sufficiently densely populated to achieve strong economic growth.
The second factor is a legacy of what I term ‘low budget’ colonialism – largely a response to low population density – characterised by isolated enclaves of mineral and agricultural commodity exploitation. (查看原文)
The third factor is a limiting set of initial developmental conditions born of the first two. Low population density and low budget colonialism translated into societies that were dispersed, fragmented, uneducated and politically unorganised. There were also corrosive white settler legacies in a dozen countries. State weakness, low budgets and colonial racism were such that, when the post-colonial era began in the late 1950s, levels of literacy and numeracy in Africa were lower than in any other region of the world.
It is the combination of these three sets of impediments – rather than more popularly cited ones such as corruption and ethnic violence – that have placed a ceiling over Africa’s economic prospects. (查看原文)
![[美] 乔·史塔威尔](https://img3.doubanio.com/view/personage/m/public/83a0be2a3cbfe98753af5ddc69e3f06f.jpg)
乔·史塔威尔 作者
0 有用 脆皮Isaac 2026-02-20 15:22:49 河北
本书驳斥了“非洲抗拒增长”的传统观点，系统论证了非洲通过重新掌控土地、人民和国家主权，正经历大规模经济发展进程。 本书首先分析了非洲面临的人口制约、失衡经济形态以及社会分裂与教育缺失等结构性挑战，为理解非洲发展困境提供了历史背景。 然后，再通过四个典型案例研究成功模式：博茨瓦纳的精英治国、毛里求斯的天堂岛国成功密码、埃塞俄比亚的亚洲模式借鉴，以及卢旺达被誉为“中非新加坡”的转型经验。 最后提... 本书驳斥了“非洲抗拒增长”的传统观点，系统论证了非洲通过重新掌控土地、人民和国家主权，正经历大规模经济发展进程。 本书首先分析了非洲面临的人口制约、失衡经济形态以及社会分裂与教育缺失等结构性挑战，为理解非洲发展困境提供了历史背景。 然后，再通过四个典型案例研究成功模式：博茨瓦纳的精英治国、毛里求斯的天堂岛国成功密码、埃塞俄比亚的亚洲模式借鉴，以及卢旺达被誉为“中非新加坡”的转型经验。 最后提及非洲面临的挑战。作者建议非洲聚焦农业觉醒需求、制造业攻坚战等关键领域，并指出非洲未来发展路径。 总而言之，作者对非洲未来抱以乐观展望，认为非洲大陆正在以前所未有的速度蓬勃发展。 (展开)
0 有用 目送飞鸿 2026-04-19 19:56:06 北京
比较散，也没有清晰和信服的jiel