In the late 1980s Burkina Faso embarked on an ambitious programme of political and economic reforms. Reform policy has been successful in breaking down the worst sides of the patronage system put in place in the country after independence, by introducing some structural reforms and reorienting...

A decade ago Cape Verde embarked on an ambitious programme of marked-oriented economic reforms. In 1997-1998 the reform policy was given a new lease of life and new measures were introduced to secure the withdrawal of the state from many areas of economic activity. This renewal of reform policy...