Jeffrery Herbst and Greg Mills put forth in Africa's Third Liberation that political
liberalization and a commodity boom is propelling African development. It was the fastest
growing region this past decade marked by better human development figures, less intrastate
conflict, and widespread democratization. These improvements are a welcome change to a region
long plagued by political violence and economic stagnation.[1] However, now is not the time to pat
any backs and instead we must focus on how development can be sustained, reach more people,
and extend into the harder to reach areas. Conventional scholarship emphasizes that the missing
feature in African progress has been the development of stronger states with better governance and
more effective institutions. The…show more content… Originating out of Middle East studies, the resource curse theory emerged
as an explanation as to why so many resource abundant states have generally been more unstable,
undemocratic, and unable to achieve strong economic growth. Established with oil rich states in
mind, the theory has broadened to other types of rents that shared similar properties and effects
including minerals and even aid. But why would something so seemingly advantageous such as
oil/mineral wealth or aid cause so many problems? Essentially, because such resources can
generate massive quantities of wealth, typically controlled by the state, with little labor required;
inequality and corruption increase, institutional capacity erodes, democratic pressures are
sublimated, and rent seeking activities arise. Aid to Africa postindependence accordingly had
little benefit and was often counterproductive.
Academics have long argued the missing ingredient in Africa is a strong, effective