 M. Anne Pitcher, Conditions, Commitments, and the Politics of Restructuring in Africa Conditionality has had negative effects on neoliberal reform in Africa, and scholars now contend that governmental commitment to reforms, rather than conditionality, yields success. This article explores the dilemmas of commitment and the complexity of success in two highly praised reformers to establish a benchmark against which to judge reform in other countries. Commitment is a protracted negotiation between the state and social actors. Furthermore, even in successful cases, restructuring is the product of a dynamic interaction between institutional legacies and the policy choices of engaged agents and results in varied trajectories. Lastly, new alliances and fissures generated by structural change may undermine reform success over time. |