Yihan Pan ID: 4406586 Econ 3960 Professor Okediji Report 2 Political Structures and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa All of the three economic journals we have read including Governance and Growth in Sub-Saharan, Why is African Poor, and Africa’s Economic Performance: Limitations of the Current Consensus point out the internal relation between the political system in Sub-Saharan Africa countries and their failure in economic development. I found that we must not underestimate or ignore the influence of political institutions in both the economic recovery model and the course of Sub-Saharan Africa economy decline in the past decades. These three journals show that there are tons of historical and statistical evidences suggesting the political institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa countries is one of the key determinants in economic success. First of all, in the journal Why is African Poor? , the authors argue that SSA countries with political centralization generally have more successful economic development and social conditions. They use the Bushong, the dominant group in the Kuba state, and the Lele, effectively a stateless society as an historical example to illustrate how the political institutions affect economy. Those two groups are separated only by the Kasai River, but everything that the Lele have or can do, the Bushong have more and can do better. The main difference between these two groups is the political structure. The lack of political centralization causes the Lele trapped into an inefficient social equilibrium. No men in the Lele society are able to give

orders with a reasonable hope of being obeyed (p.24). However, in the Bushong society, authorities have enough political power to impose taxes and have polices to administer the law. This political structure greatly increases the level of income in the Bushong society (P.25). The author further argues