Peterson, Maxfield J.
(2022)
Unsustainable Development: How Incoherent Governance Stunts Africa’s Energy
Future.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The related goals of developing renewable energy resources and expanding electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa are understood in academic research and development practice as critical to the region’s future. Yet progress towards so-called “sustainable development” has been limited. This dissertation explores the political and economic forces that frustrate sustainable development in African power sectors through a combination of interviews in the field, case studies, and quantitative evidence. I find that successive attempts to reform African power sectors have produced incoherent sets of institutions, or policy regimes, working at cross-purposes rather than in pursuit of common policy goals. Power sector policy regimes formulate constituencies of politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses invested in regime preservation for political and economic reasons. Even when reforms establish statutory entities responsible for growing renewable energy production, they face powerful competition from incumbent coalitions with superior resources and political capital. Dominant approaches to sustainable development rely heavily on market-based mechanisms intended to align capital with social and environmental goals. These strategies are unlikely to work so long as they fail to recruit influential actors from within the policy regime. My findings contribute to theoretical literature on
governance by demonstrating the necessity of holist approaches to administrative reform and providing a new analytic framework for doing so. The findings contribute to the policy literature by providing a theoretically motivated, systematic empirical analysis that challenges the assumptions of dominant models of sustainable development. Specifically, I show how politically controlled monopsonies in power sectors relegate market-based mechanisms to the margins of the industry and show why this is unlikely to change. However, I provide evidence that, under even moderately strong democratic conditions, state-led investment can be a powerful tool for
sustainable development goals.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
12 October 2022 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
28 June 2022 |
| Approval Date: |
12 October 2022 |
| Submission Date: |
12 August 2022 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
339 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Political Science |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
political science, governance, public administration, political economy, renewable energy, Africa |
| Date Deposited: |
12 Oct 2022 16:03 |
| Last Modified: |
12 Oct 2022 16:03 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/43611 |
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