Private sector involvement in policy making in a poverty-stricken liberal democracy

Modern democracies practice different systems of state-private sector interaction in policymaking. Relevant systems include the neopluralist, also known as pressure group or advocacy pluralism and the neocorporatist, also referred to as liberal or societal corporatism, as well as mixed corporatist-pluralist systems. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers introduced by IMF and the World Bank in the late 1990s for indebted countries implies a process of country-led policy-making involving non-governmental actors including the private sector. The World Bank developed guidelines for the process. It is argued that in certain sections of the guidelines a system of advocacy pluralism is implicitly recommended while in others this issue is ambiguous. Zambia attempted a system of advocacy pluralism. However, taking into consideration past and current structures and relations between private sector and the state in Zambia, it is not obvious that a system of advocacy pluralism is the most effective for the long-term management of the economy. The author speculates that in agriculture and copper mining the most important sectors of the economy, systems with neocorporatist features could be more effective. In agriculture, the hierarchically structured interest organizations, although fragmented, could develop into some type of a neocorporatist system, although a pluralist advocacy system is likely. In coffee production and trade, there is already in existence a neocorporatist system. In the copper industry the dominant multinational corporations and interest organizations may confine themselves to a reactive response to policy proposals by the government. That is, acting as advocates in a pressure pluralist system. Alternatively, the corporations may take advantage of their economic and political strength and work out their long-term intentions in consultation with the government and the labour union. The author refers to possible pitfalls when transferring political systems developed in the North to weaker democracies in the South.