Table Of ContentThe EU and China in African
Authoritarian Regimes
Domestic Politics and Governance Reforms
CHRISTINE HACKENESCH
GOVERNANCE
AND LIMITED
STATEHOOD
Governance and Limited Statehood
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Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin, Germany
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Christine Hackenesch
The EU and China in
African Authoritarian
Regimes
Domestic Politics and Governance Reforms
Christine Hackenesch
German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut
für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
Bonn, Germany
Governance and Limited Statehood
ISBN 978-3-319-63590-3 ISBN 978-3-319-63591-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63591-0
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A
cknowledgements
The idea for this project has been on my mind since the very beginning
when I started researching the European Union’s (EU’s) and China’s rela-
tions with Africa back in 2008. China’s relations with African countries had
attracted great attention after the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation
(FOCAC) summit in Beijing in 2006, and scholarly interest in the drivers
and effects of this relationship was burgeoning. The most controversial
debates during public events, academic conferences and in the media always
evolved around the impact of China’s rise on political reforms in Africa and
implications for the EU’s and other actors’ good governance policies.
Interestingly, despite heated debates there has been and still is little academic
evidence on this issue. This made me curious to develop an analytical frame-
work to address this question and to delve into the empirics—a challenge in
itself, in view of the rapidly evolving relations between China and Africa.
This work would not have been possible without the great support
from colleagues and friends. Special thanks go first and foremost to Tanja
Börzel and Dirk Messner. Their intellectual guidance and encouragement
has been vital to the success of this project. I am also very grateful to my
colleagues and friends from the German Development Institute who gave
moral support and discussed portions of this book, including Mark
Furness, Jörn Grävingholt, Niels Keijzer, Stephan Klingebiel, Erik
Lundsgaarde, Timo Mahn, Mario Negre, Imme Scholz and Jörg Faust.
Sven Grimm, Svea Koch, Julia Leininger and Silke Weinlich have been
extremely valuable partners to discuss the EU’s good governance strate-
gies in Africa and implications of China’s rise, on numerous occasions.
Debates with Julia Bader have been tremendously helpful at various
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
instances throughout the whole process. Her critical and constructive
remarks have been crucial during the final stages of the preparation of this
book.
In addition, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the more than 200
government officials, business representatives and civil society activists
from China, Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda, the European Union and EU
member states for sharing their insights and taking the time to discuss
with me. They will remain anonymous in this book, but their perspectives
have greatly enriched my understanding of the dynamics between the
EU’s and China’s engagement in Africa and domestic politics in African
authoritarian, dominant party systems. I could not have realised this pro-
ject without financial assistance from the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development. The editorial team at Palgrave
has provided very professional assistance throughout the publication pro-
cess. I would also like to thank Thomas Risse for considering this book for
the ‘governance and limited statehood’ series and for his helpful remarks.
Two anonymous reviewers should be acknowledged for insightful com-
ments. A special thanks also goes to Eleonora Hoffmann, Anna Hornik,
Dominik Pieper, Steffen Stürznickel and Dennis Weidner for their research
assistance.
Finally, I would not have finished this book without the loving support,
encouragement and patience of my family and friends. My deepest grati-
tude goes to my parents, Sabine and Hans Hackenesch. I dedicate this
book to them.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 EU Good Governance Strategies Face Two Challenges:
The Predominance of African Dominant Party Systems
and China’s Rise in Africa 3
1.2 D ifferent Parts of the Same Elephant? Researching EU
Good Governance Strategies and China’s Engagement
in Africa 10
1.3 Why Angola, Ethiopia and Rwanda? 14
1.4 Structure of the Book 17
2 T he Initial Puzzle: Why Governments in Dominant Party
Systems Engage with the EU on Good Governance
Reform, or Not 21
2.1 T he EU’s Strategies to Promote Governance Reforms 24
2.2 A frican Governments’ Responsiveness 29
2.3 S urvival Strategies of Governments in Dominant party
Regimes 31
2.4 African Economic Dependence on the EU 41
2.5 T he Rise of China: What Effect? 43
2.6 Map of the Puzzle: Explaining African Governments’
Responsiveness 47
vii
viii CONTENTS
3 Rwanda 49
3.1 Structural Factors Shaping Rwanda’s Survival Strategies 50
3.2 Rwanda Reluctantly Engaged with the EU in the Early
2000s 51
3.3 Rwanda Proactively Engaging with the EU in the Late
2000s Despite China Looming 63
3.4 A U-turn in the EU’s Strategies in 2012 But Little
Change in Rwanda’s Responsiveness 83
3.5 Conclusions 87
4 Ethiopia 99
4.1 Structural Factors Shaping Ethiopia’s Survival Strategies 100
4.2 Ethiopia Reluctantly Engaging with the EU in the Early
2000s 101
4.3 The 2005 Election Crisis: A Turning Point in EU-Ethiopia
relations 114
4.4 Ethiopia Reluctantly Engaging with the EU in the Late
2000s Despite China’s Strong Presence 118
4.5 Brief Breeze of Change in EU–Ethiopia Cooperation
Between 2011 and 2014 137
4.6 Conclusions 138
5 Angola 149
5.1 S tructural Factors Shaping Angola’s Survival Strategies 150
5.2 A ngola Reluctantly Engaging in Governance Reforms
in the Early 2000s Despite China Emerging 151
5.3 T he Late 2000s: Angola Largely Indifferent Towards EU
Demands to Engage on Governance Reforms Even
Though the EU Narrows Its Strategies 163
5.4 C onclusions 185
CONTENT S ix
6 C onclusions 193
6.1 EU Good Governance Strategies: Not Strategic Enough 194
6.2 Quite Diverse: African Dominant Party Systems’ Survival
Strategies 198
6.3 Economic Dependence: Less Important Than Thought 205
6.4 Does China Matter? Yes, But Less Than Expected 209
6.5 Some Avenues for Future Work 219
6.6 Policy Implications: Facing a Fork in the Road? 222
References 227
Index 251
