Botswana in the Modern World-System

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 78, Stellenbosch Universitiy, course: Comparative Political Economy, language: English, abstract: Botswana is described as the "e;African miracle"e; (Samatar, 1999), as an "e;exception"e;(Good, 1992), or as a rare example of an African state that used its bonanza ofmineral riches wisely (Meredith, 2006:285). However, critique verbalized by Taylor(2003) and Good (1992) has shown that Botswana s economic history is not a puresuccess story; even it illustrates a positive example of African developmentcompared to almost all the other African countries. To analyze Botswana s economichistory I will date back to the beginning of the 1900s. At this time, Botswana s eightmain chiefdoms dominated regional African trade. The indigenous elite welcomedtrade with European settlers who arrived in this period. While Botswana s neighborcountries experienced the process of incorporation into the modern world-economyalready, Botswana started to shift into the external arena of the global economy. Thisessay will show how Botswana is and has incorporated into the modern worldeconomyreferred to Immanuel Wallerstein s modern world-system theory. I will startwith an overview about Botswana s actual trade situation to be able to locate thecountry within the global division of labor. Afterwards the paper analyses the historyof Botswana s shift into the external arena of the modern world-system followed by itsincorporation. Furthermore, I will illustrate Botswana s economic development sincethe incorporation. A second part of Botswana s history deals with the economy-basedclass structure and how it shaped the political history since Botswana achievedpolitical independence in 1966. I will argue that the class structure, as alreadyindicated, has to be understood in the context of pre-colonial and colonialdevelopment. After all, I will point out what important contemporary political-economicfeatures of Botswana are not accounted for in my world-systems-based analysis. Theessay will finish with a short conclusion to draw a statement about a world-systembased analysis about Botswana s political-economy.