Notes on Economic Development Policy in Africa Implications for Liberia (Published)
This paper embraces structured pluralism and a heterodox model of economic analysis. The paper suggests that robust policy outcomes will be contingent on heterodox approaches that factor historical traditions, human intuition, institutional variables, conflict, social structure and the distribution of economic power in the theoretical matrix. The paper defines this approach as an open system’s and behaviorist approach to the analysis of relatively underdeveloped and static economies in Africa. Hence, the conceptual model provided in this paper adopts an open system’s and behaviorist methodological approach that calls for critical departures from some of the core axiomatic assumptions of neo-classical economics. The paper concludes by positing that a rehabilitated and enlightened state in the Liberian context is at least a first order condition for constructing accountability and normative principles that should govern the conduct of the state’s fiduciary responsibilities to citizens.
Keywords: Neo-Classical Economics, Neo-Liberalism, Open System’s Approach, Post-Keynesian, Structured Pluralism