The Castle Lecture Series - Africa: The Last Frontier for Development

David Laitin, Stanford University

Lecture 1 - The Unfulfilled Dreams of African Independence

Africa has lagged the rest of the developing world in terms of economic development, health, the establishment of social order, and the consolidation of democracy. For development outcomes, compared to other regions of the world, Africa is the “last frontier”. This lecture series will first survey the dimensions of development failures, and then will identify the historical and political sources accounting for this lag. Finally, it will point to some hopeful trends.
Speaker: David Laitin, James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science, Stanford University.

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