Botswana in the Modern World-System

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International 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 of

mineral riches wisely¿ (Meredith, 2006:285). However, critique verbalized by Taylor

(2003) and Good (1992) has shown that Botswanäs economic history is not a pure

success story; even it illustrates a positive example of African development

compared to almost all the other African countries. To analyze Botswanäs economic

history I will date back to the beginning of the 1900s. At this time, Botswanäs eight

main chiefdoms dominated regional African trade. The indigenous elite welcomed

trade with European settlers who arrived in this period. While Botswanäs neighbor

countries experienced the process of incorporation into the modern world-economy

already, Botswana started to shift into the external arena of the global economy. This

essay will show how Botswana is and has incorporated into the modern worldeconomy

referred to Immanuel Wallerstein¿s modern world-system theory. I will start

with an overview about Botswanäs actual trade situation to be able to locate the

country within the global division of labor. Afterwards the paper analyses the history

of Botswanäs shift into the external arena of the modern world-system followed by its

incorporation. Furthermore, I will illustrate Botswanäs economic development since

the incorporation. A second part of Botswanäs history deals with the economy-based

class structure and how it shaped the political history since Botswana achieved

political independence in 1966. I will argue that the class structure, as already

indicated, has to be understood in the context of pre-colonial and colonial

development. After all, I will point out what important contemporary political-economic

features of Botswana are not accounted for in my world-systems-based analysis. The

essay will finish with a short conclusion to draw a statement about a world-system

based analysis about Botswanäs political-economy.