Opportunistic behaviour- its causes and some of the consequences;
Both rent seeking and corrupt state include the idea of opportunistic behaviour.
Rent seeking:
Rent seeking is a practise where scarce resources are used to capture wealth
transfers through government intervention in economic activities. In other words
special interest groups use resources to influence the political system to earn returns
that are in excess of opportunity costs. These costs are the cost of producing goods
and services. An example of the above mentioned statement is by imposing
legislation to limit the supply of goods through the amount being produced or entry of
new manufactures. Those who already produce the goods will make bigger profits.
On the other hand government could impose restrictions on the demand through
price ceilings. Price ceilings are beneficial to consumers but have a negative impact
on producers.
In Africa, rent – seeking is very prevalent, because there are few constitutional and
institutional constraints limiting Government intervention in the exchange of goods
and services. Another example of rent seeking is where Governments allocate
import licences to selected individuals or groups as well as assigning property rights.
(Napier 2010:34)
Bureaucratic corruption:
Corruption is hard to measure or define, but in Africa there are many types of corrupt
practises, which became the standard mode of transacting political and financial
business. Over the years senior officials and even heads of state became very
brazen, by openly flouting their own countries’ laws. Examples of corruption is when
heads of state demand kick – backs when awarding state contracts which is the
most common form of official corruption.
Even though countries in Africa have legal codes and laws on paper, it is very rarely
enforced, especially by those responsible for their implementation. From the outside
states are seen as functional because it has a functioning government, a central
bank and financial institutions as well as a legal system.
Thus in theory African countries are governed by the consistent application of written
laws. And because of the written laws it allows African Politicians, power brokers and
foreign partners to manipulate the gap between theory and reality to their advantage.
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