Article contents
Political Regime and Economic Actors: The Response of Firms to the End of Colonial Rule
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
Abstract
The relationship between economic system and political regime has recently reemerged as a central issue in social science. An examination of the political perceptions and actions of individual firms and of sectors during the uncertainties of decolonization permits a new approach to this question, using the concept of political exposure. The firm or sector characteristics that are associated with greater political exposure are assessed. Political preferences cannot be equated with either political action or outcomes, however. The links between capitalism and political regime require further refinement and qualification.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1981
References
1 Lindblom, Charles E., Politics and Markets (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978).Google Scholar Investigations emphasizing sectoral or other divisions within the economic elites include Kurth, James R., “The Political Consequences of the Product Cycle: Industrial History and Political Outcomes,” International Organization, XXXIII (Winter 1979) 1–34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and an excellent discussion of the political economy of the Weimar Republic by Abraham, David, “Conflicts within German Industry and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic,” Past and Present (August 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 These cases include the French decolonization of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and the British decolonization of Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), and the Central African Federation (now Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi).
3 Polanyi, Karl, The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), 140.Google Scholar
4 Kindleberger, Charles, Government and International Trade, Essays in International Finance, No. 129 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, International Finance Section, 1978). 3–7.Google Scholar
5 Moran, Theodore H., Multinational Corporations and the Politics of Dependence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), 160 Google Scholar; Stepan, Alfred, The State and Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 242–45.Google Scholar
6 Ibid., 238–41.
7 Nehrt, Lee Charles, The Political Climate for Private Foreign Investment (New York: Praeger, 1970), 3.Google Scholar
8 Slinn, Peter, “Commercial Concessions and Politics during the Colonial Period: The Role of the British South Africa Company in Northern Rhodesia, 1890–1964,” African Affairs, Vol. 70 (October 1971), 365–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Welensky, Roy, Welensky's 4000 Days (London: Collins, 1964), 32–33.Google Scholar
9 A good account of these negotiations is found in Faber, M.L.O. and Potter, J. G., Towards Economic Independence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), 40–61.Google Scholar
10 The attitudes of the firm were clearly stated by its chairman in 1959, following the violence in Nyasaland that marked the beginning of the end for the colonial status quo in Central Africa: see Tanganyika Concessions, Ltd., Report and Accounts (July 31, 1959)Google Scholar; the firm's impact in London is documented by Macmillan, Harold, At the End of the Day (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 283–84.Google Scholar
11 Nehrt (fn. 7), 291. The most extensive account of the holdings of the metropolitan groups is given in Ayache, Albert, Le Maroc: bilan d'une colonisation (Paris: Éditions sociales, 1956)Google Scholar; a useful summary can be found in Bernard, Stephane, Le Conflit franco-marocain, 1943–1956 (Bruxelles: Editions de l'Institut de Sociologie de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1963), III Google Scholar, part iii, chaps. 3–4.
12 As late as the 1960s, Nehrt noted that the Moroccan government had not touched the holdings of Omnium Nord-Africain; in the case of politically sensitive concessions, early terminations were negotiated, with indemnification (fn. 7), 291–93.
13 Brett, E. A., Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Last Africa (New York: NOK Publishers, 1973), 212.Google Scholar
14 July, Pierre, Une République pour un roi (Paris: Fayard, 1974), 9 Google Scholar; Cerych, Ladislav, Européens et marocains, 1930–1956: sociologie d'une décolonisation (Bruges: De Tempel, 1964), 342–44Google Scholar; Gendarme, René, L'Économie de l'Algérie (Paris: Armand Colin, 1959), 143–44Google Scholar; Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace (New York: Viking Press, 1978) 56–57 Google Scholar; Poncet, Jean, La Colonisation et l'agriculture européennes en Tunisie depuis 1881 (Paris: Mouton 1962), 336–37, 636.Google Scholar
15 The best description of the organization of East African agriculture is in Stahl, Kathleen M., The Metropolitan Organization of British Colonial Trade (London: Faber & Faber, 1951), 218–73Google Scholar; see also Wasserman, Gary, Politics of Decolonization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 136, 172–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Palmer, Robin, “European Resistance to African Majority Rule: The Settlers' and Residents' Association of Nyasaland, 1960–63,” African Affairs, Vol. 72 (July 1973), 256–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16 See, for example, Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, Ltd., Chairman's Statement (1959), 3 Google Scholar: despite the likelihood that his political preferences would not be met, Oppenheimer asserted that “we are not afraid of change and we believe we shall be able to work with the government of the future.” Compare this response to that of Rhodesian Selection Trust Group of Companies, Statement by the Chairman, Sir Ronald Prain (1959 and 1960). By late 1962, Prain expressed confidence in the future political status of Northern Rhodesia, accepting that “the wishes of the African people will prevail, and they will move progressively into a position in which they will be the controlling force in the government of the country” (Statement by the Chairman, 1962), 7.
17 Rhodesian Anglo-American Ltd., Thirty-second Annual Report (1962)Google Scholar; Rhodesian Selection Trust (fn. 16, 1959). Richard Sklar considers the Wankie Colliery and the rental of Rhodesian Railways rolling stock from an Anglo-American subsidiary as the principal interests of Anglo-American in Southern Rhodesia: see Corporate Power in an African State (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975), 47.
18 Their importance in the Federation is described by Leys, Colin, European Politics in Southern Rhodesia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 112 Google Scholar; Sklar (fn. 17), 180–82.
19 Berger, Elena L., Labour, Race and Colonial Rule: The Copperbelt from 1924 to Independence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), 225.Google Scholar
20 Tricot, Bernard, Les Sentiers de la paix (Paris: Plon, 1972), 258.Google Scholar
21 René Gendarme (fn. 14), 168; Stahl (fn. 15), 204–05.
22 Bouvier, Jean, Un Siècle de banque française (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1973), 149–50.Google Scholar All quotations have been translated by the present author.
23 See Henry's, J. A. history of the Standard Bank in the Central African Federation, The First Hundred Years of the Standard Bank (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 294.Google Scholar
24 SirCrossley, Julian and Blandford, John, The DCO Story (London: Barclays Bank International Ltd., 1975), 182–83, 185–90.Google Scholar
25 Newlyn, W. T. and Rowan, D. C., Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), 85–95.Google Scholar
26 Henry, (fn. 23), 318–19Google Scholar; Crossley, and Blandford, (fn. 24), 180–81.Google Scholar
27 Pearson, D. S., Industrial Development in East Africa (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1969), 14–17 Google Scholar; Amsden, A. H., International Firms and Labour in Kenya: 1945–1970 (London: Frank Cass, 1971), 50–51.Google Scholar
28 Wasserman, (fn. 15), 38, 40.Google Scholar
29 Cerych, (fn. 14), 137–38, 155, 329.Google Scholar
30 The attitudes of businessmen were captured in interviews recorded at the time, in Bernard (fn. 11), III, 246–47. French capital voted on the future of Morocco in its continued high level of investment: although slowing after 1953 as the political situation in the protectorate worsened and some flight capital left the country, the investment level was higher in 1955, the year of greatest disturbance, than it had been in a number of postwar years. See Cerych (fn. 14), 350.
31 While metropolitan investment was not absent, private investment in Algeria was concentrated in real estate and commerce; and efforts by the French state to encourage industrialization after 1945 were largely thwarted by competition from metropolitan industry. A tax structure biased in favor of agriculture further stifled industrial development. Gendarme (fn. 14), 169–70, 144; Moussa, Pierre, Les Chances économiques de la communauté franco-africaine (Paris: Armand Colin, 1957)Google Scholar, chap. 9.
32 The archives were made available through the courtesy of the management of the parent firms which consolidated in 1971. A brief history of the parent firms and a description of present activities can be found in Allard, P. and others, Dictionnaire des groupes industriels et financiers en France (Paris: Seuil, 1978), 103–06.Google Scholar
33 VAN began as a creation of perceived political need under the Vichy government: the regime saw such subsidiaries as a means of easing economic discontent in North Africa and assuring a French future for the African territories. The political concessions made to ensure the viability of the firm included customs preferences to permit penetration of the Tunisian and Moroccan markets, as well as a complicated set of subsidy arrangements agreed upon after the war, guaranteeing that the Government General of Algeria would cover any losses (as well as providing credits and loans) in exchange for holdings in the firm.
34 VAN, Correspondance de la Délégation Générale de l'Algérie, 1954–63, “Situation des verreries de l'Afrique du Nord en 1956,” July 6, 1956, esp. 6–8. Also, letter from Le Corre to Franci, January 21, 1957, in the same dossier.
35 In 1956, for example, Algeria provided 25% of the company's business; by 1960, the share had grown to 39%. SOCOMAN, Conseils d'administration, October 23, 1956; June 17, 1960. The reasons for the start of diversification have not come to light, although the political situation in North Africa clearly speeded it.
36 SOCOMAN, Report on the tournée of M. L. Giboin, December 12, 1955.Google Scholar
37 In 1956, one SOCOMAN manager noted Arab hostility toward the French population in North Africa, but foresaw improvement if “the composition of the population in North Africa were modified in part. …” Conseil d'administration (June 25, 1956). In the report cited above, rumors of an “Algerian Republic” are mentioned: although surprise is registered, at no point is it suggested that such an outcome would be a disaster; instead, the model of Morocco was again used as the likeliest image of Algeria's future.
38 Only a small part of France's commerce with the empire deviated from this pattern: see Moussa, (fn. 31), 27–28, 34.Google Scholar
39 Cronje, Suzanne, Ling, Margaret, and Cronje, Gillian, The Lonrho Connections (Encino, Calif.: Bellwether Books, 1976).Google Scholar
40 Sampson, Anthony, The Sovereign State of ITT (New York: Stein & Day, 1973).Google Scholar
41 In investigating the activities of these two groups, the complete records of the Joint Board were available; the archives of the Comité central were being catalogued, and records of the constituent sections, which may have been more active, were not available.
42 Joint East and Central Africa Board, Minutes of the Executive Committee (September 14, 1961).
43 For these approaches as applied to American foreign policy, see Krasner, Stephen, Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investments and U. S. Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).Google Scholar
44 O'Donnell, , “Corporatism and the Question of the State,” in Malloy, James M., ed., Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America (Pittsburgh: University of Pitts burgh Press, 1977), 44–87, at 57–58.Google Scholar
45 For a summary of these arguments, see Evans, Peter, Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 47–49, 288–89.Google Scholar
46 Johnstone, Frederick A., “White Prosperity and White Supremacy in South Africa Today,” African Affairs, Vol. 69 (April 1970), 124–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 136. A summary of the debate is given in Davenport, T.R.H., South Africa: A Modern History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977)Google Scholar, chap. 20.
47 Moran, Theodore H., “Multinational Corporations and Dependency: A Dialogue for Dependistas and Non-Dependistas,” international Organization, XXXII (Winter 1978), 94–95.Google Scholar
48 The share of the European workforce employed in industry in Southern Rhodesia (the core of European settlement) increased steadily until 1956; the proportion in the tertiary sector (commercial and government services) also increased. See Barber, William J., The Economy of British Central Africa (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1961), 115, 141Google Scholar, and Table IX, 113 (on the high rate of investment); Murray, D. J., The Governmental System in Southern Rhodesia (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), 17.Google Scholar
49 Bowman, Larry W., Politics in Rhodesia: White Power in an African State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), 79 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilson, Harold, The Labour Government, 1964–1970 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), 209–10.Google Scholar
50 Murray, (fn. 48), 17.Google Scholar
51 A similar criticism of economic determinism in dependency theory is made in Cardoso, Fernando Henrique and Faletto, Enzo, Dependency and Development in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 210–11.Google Scholar The case for viewing the state and political structures as having a more autonomous role is made in telling fashion by Skocpol, Theda, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 11
- Cited by