From a Minimal State to Territorial Inequalities: Structural Adjustment Programs and Decentralization in Senegal

Abstract

Since Senegal’s independence in 1960, the country has undertaken a process of decentralization aimed at reducing the territorial imbalances inherited from the colonial period. However, the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) introduced in the 1980s under the injunction of “less State, better State?? profoundly transformed territorial governance.

This theoretical research analyzes the relationship between structural adjustment and decentralization reforms, and how this dynamic has contributed to shaping contemporary territorial inequalities in Senegal. By mobilizing the analytical frameworks of territorial economics and decentralization, the study highlights a paradox: despite three major decentralization reforms (1972, 1996, and 2013), territorial disparities not only persist but tend to worsen in a vicious circle. The findings suggest that this situation can be explained by the combination of three factors: a centralizing colonial legacy, adjustment policies that weakened the State’s redistributive capacity, and decentralization reforms insufficiently endowed with financial and institutional resources.

JEL Code: R58, N17, I32

Paper type: Theoretical Research