Learning from diverse development models for Africa’s customised modernisation

Francis Fukuyama’s revised stance on the “End of History” thesis marks an important shift in global ideological discourse. For decades, the Western liberal development model was commonly regarded as the sole viable pathway for all nations.

Nevertheless, China’s remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation, industrial upgrading and technological advancement have proven diversified modernization paths are feasible. For Africa and developing economies across the Global South, learning valuable insights from China’s modernization drive has become strategically meaningful for their own development.

1. Core features of Chinese modernisation

 Far from a carbon copy of Western industrialisation, China’s modernization has evolved alongside its unique historical and national conditions, featuring four prominent characteristics:

First, targeted long-term planning. Based on its domestic institutional framework, China can coordinate resources to deliver long-range national priorities, yielding outstanding results in new-energy vehicles and digital infrastructure construction.

Second, pragmatic development philosophy combining planning and market rules. China sticks to its indigenous development path and advances opening-up progressively without rigid ideological confinement.

Third, people-centered development priorities. It prioritizes tangible livelihood gains, having lifted over 800 million people out of poverty and built world-class high-speed railway networks and comprehensive social security systems.

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Fourth, non-export of its development model. China never imposes its development framework on other countries; every nation is entitled to explore a modernization route suited to its own realities, differing from conditional aid programmes tied to institutional requirements in some Western cooperation modes.

1. Valuable lessons for Africa and the Global South

 Different governance, economic and development models have taken shape in China and the US amid distinct historical backgrounds, with respective strengths and areas for continuous improvement:

- Governance framework: The US operates a multi-party electoral and separation-of-powers system; China practices whole-process people’s democracy with a unified institutional arrangement and merit-based personnel selection. Both systems have evolved to fit their respective social realities.

- Economic framework: The US features privatization, market deregulation and flexible capital management; China balances market allocation of resources with state investment in strategic industries and opens its economy step by step.

- Development sequence: Many Western countries advanced institutional reform before rapid economic expansion, while China prioritizes economic and social stability to lay foundations before iterative institutional refinement; both paths stem from unique historical contexts.

- Risk resilience: Electoral cycles and interest group influences may lead to policy shifts in Western systems; China leverages medium-and-long-term planning such as Five-Year Plans to facilitate timely policy adjustment amid changing circumstances.

- External cooperation: Some developing economies face debt pressures from overseas financing, resulting from combined domestic and international factors; the Belt and Road Initiative led by China focuses on equal consultation with no coercive clauses for cooperation.

- Cultural orientation: Western development highlights individual values, while China attaches importance to collective wellbeing and inherits fine traditional culture.

1. Three actionable takeaways for developing nations:

1. Build homegrown risk-resistant industrial layouts. Drawing on China’s long-term domestic R&D input, Africa can develop local pharmaceutical, agro-processing and digital sectors to reduce over-reliance on raw material exports. Diversify trade partners, launch regional currency swap mechanisms and build strategic reserves of grain and energy.
2. Pursue customised modernisation instead of blind copying. No two countries share identical history, ethnicity and resource endowments. Africa can integrate indigenous governance concepts like Ubuntu with effective oversight practices from Western systems and China’s long-term development planning experience, as demonstrated by Rwanda’s developmental practices.
3. Abandon singular ideological yardsticks for governance evaluation. Measured by indicators such as life expectancy, literacy and infrastructure access rather than fixed ideological standards, national governance can be assessed more objectively.

1. Advantages of locally rooted development models

Development frameworks rooted in domestic culture and social demands boast stronger resilience against external shocks including sanctions and aid fluctuations:

1. Cultural cohesion enables public recognition of temporary adjustment costs amid developmental challenges.
2. Stable long-term planning avoids frequent policy reversal caused by regular electoral cycles, supporting multi-decade infrastructure projects.
3. Rational selective absorption: Nations can adopt proven global experiences such as Germany’s vocational education and China’s special economic zone setup while discarding inappropriate reform proposals.

1. Practical hybrid modernisation roadmap for Africa

1. Governance: Establish development-focused coalition bodies, develop grassroots participatory budgeting and set up independent anti-corruption authorities drawing on experience from multiple jurisdictions.
2. Economy: Set up state-owned enterprises in key sectors including energy and mineral resources, while keeping consumer and service markets fully competitive; adopt targeted industrial policies to boost green manufacturing.
3. Social development: Treat universal education, basic healthcare and rural electrification as core productivity investments, partnering with traditional community leaders to implement grassroots livelihood projects.
4. Foreign affairs: Deepen engagement with AfCFTA, Brics and Belt and Road Initiative, and pursue diversified diplomatic partnerships to avoid over-dependence on a single side.

Fukuyama’s academic revision signifies the end of the “single modernization” myth. China’s development achievements have verified diversified paths toward modernisation. African and Global South nations can cast aside outdated inferiority complex inherited from colonial eras.

By absorbing useful experience from China’s long-term development, reasonable institutional supervision from Western countries and indigenous cultural wisdom, they can formulate homegrown hybrid development paths matching local realities. The forced choice between democracy and development, tradition and modernity is outdated; tailored, down-to-earth construction is the core of future national development.

 *Saxon Zvina  is a principal consultant at Skyworld Consultancy Services  and fellow of the Belt and Road Initiative Think Tank

Email: saxon@skyworld.co.zw | X: @saxonzvina2