Depoliticisation and ahistoricism of transparency and accountability via global norms: assessing the EITI in Ghana and Nigeria. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Andrews, Nathan; Okpanachi, Eyene
• Is Part Of: Commonwealth & comparative politics. Volume 58:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 228
• Page End: 249
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: Natural resources -- politics -- transparency/accountability -- global norms -- EITI -- Africa; Comparative government -- Periodicals; Institutions politiques comparées -- Périodiques; 320.9171241
• DOI: 10.1080/14662043.2020.1735088
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1466-2043

Abstract

ABSTRACT: While extant assessments of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) have focused on institutional and regulatory regimes, such evaluations have largely tended to depoliticise institutions. This article argues that a more robust understanding of EITI processes must give central attention to historically situated political structures and power relations that continue to shape the present institutional quality/capacity of extractive industries' transparency, and EITI reforms. Assessing the EITI in Africa through the lens of historical institutionalism clarifies how global governance regimes interface with specific institutional pathways, state-corporation-civil society configurations, and historical legacies to produce outcomes that may complement or undermine intended reforms.