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 African miracle (Samatar 1999) as an exception(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-econ