Corruption in many African states is not a 'failure' of governance, but the successful continuation of colonial systems designed specifically to allow private capture of public wealth.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
THE COLONIAL ROOTS OF CORRUPTION IN AFRICA: A Historical and Structural Analysis
SSRN · 6226218
The Takeaway
Instead of viewing corruption as a modern deviation from the norm, this analysis shows it was the 'normal functioning mode' of colonial administrative engineering. It reframes post-colonial corruption from a sign of 'weak institutions' to a sign of 'legacy institutions' working exactly as they were originally built by European powers.
From the abstract
<div> Contemporary corruption in Africa does not result from spontaneous emergence but is rooted in the continuity of a political and administrative order inherited from colonization. This article demonstrates that colonial powers established governance systems where public good capture was not a deviation but the normal functioning mode. Through comparative analysis of French, Belgian and British colonial models, the study reveals how each metropole developed specific mechanisms for extracting