The political economy of bilateral aid: African development and the manufacture of consent

ABSTRACT This paper discusses implications for African development arising from our analysis of the political economy of bilateral aid (Blunt, 2023). We argue that the existential threats posed to life on Earth by global warming and nuclear war are a product of capitalist excess led by the neoimperialist countries of the West. Africans have long been, and remain, among the main victims of the capitalist rampage. As capitalism’s “smiling face”, bilateral aid facilitates the exploitation of developing countries. Management education in Africa is complicit because it contributes to the manufacture of consent. The prevention of nuclear and climate catastrophe subsumes African development and requires genuine collaboration between world powers and the abandonment of capitalism, which seem unlikely in the short-term. Nonetheless, African managers should be at the forefront of informed resistance from below, which can only be achieved if management education in the continent adopts a more critical disposition.