External constraints on policy making process in developing countries (1980-2006): A case study of Kenya
Abstract
The process of globalization combined with Bretton Wood's institutions rules is bound to
significantly reduce the autonomy of government in the formulation of economic policy
in their pursuit of industrialization and development. It's upon this view that the research
project is concerned. The project focuses on the external constraints of policy making
process in developing countries with special emphasis in Kenya. Kenya economic
reorientation in the 1980s had been paradoxically both spurred and hobbled by the hostile
international economic climate and the debt crisis.
Kenya was reluctant to implement these reforms. However the period of policy based
lending was followed by partial compliance and full compliance in some sectors of the
economy after 1990. The over optimistic policy recommendations have led to a high
incidence of shortfalls in performance eroding relations between the government and the
international officials and accentuating the decline of public confidence in government's
economic management.
The project closes with a conclusion that the country have moved towards a more limited
state role in the economy and a more open stanc~ towards international economic ~-
agencies. The international institutions have greatly eroded the sovereignty of state. They
have almost entirely taken over the policy making role of the state. They have used aid
conditionality to weak states like Kenya to ensure this. The shift in this approach is
needed particularly with respect to policy dialogue that is genuinely two ways to better
serve the goal of increasing government commitment and ownership of structural
adjustment reforms.
Citation
Master of Arts in International StudiesPublisher
University of Nairobi Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies