April 19, 2016

UAA political science professor Landry Signé has been named a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. He is the first Alaska scholar to win this prestigious fellowship.

Signé will use the $200,000 award to develop his global research project “Why African Nations Fail and How to Fix It.” To help shape a more prosperous future for Africa, he will compare 48 African countries’ governance and economic development, asking: Why do certain countries fail while others succeed, and how can their problems be solved?

On Tuesday Carnegie Corporation of New York announced 33 fellows, the majority from Ivy League and Big 10 schools. The fellows were selected based on the originality, promise, and potential impact of their proposals, which are aimed at addressing some of the world’s most urgent challenges to U.S. democracy and international order.

Signé project summary

Why African Nations Fail and How to Fix It: The Political Economy of Economic Growth and Democratic Development

Signé will conduct a systematic comparison of 48 African countries, answering the following questions: How, when, and why do democratic regimes, accountable governance, and economic development evolve, sustain themselves, or reverse course in 21st century sub-Saharan Africa? Why do certain countries fail while others succeed, and how can their problems be solved?

Africa, once considered a continent in permanent crisis, has become one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for the first decade of the 21st century, weathering the 2007-09 global financial and economic crisis better than other regions of the world. How and why has Africa, a continent presented for several decades as a home of despair, permanent crisis, slow economic growth, and the worst economic performance, become one of the world’s fastest-growing regions? What explains the continent’s better overall economic and democratic performance, and the disparity between successful and failing countries for the past two decades? Are the new economic trends sustainable?

Signé will explore the conditions that create, maintain, and sustain economic growth and democratic development in sub-Saharan Africa, explaining fluctuations in trajectories and contrasting results between successful and failed countries, in order to contribute to shaping a more prosperous future for Africa.

Read the complete Carnegie press release at carnegie.org.