Review - Africa Gov. & Econ.

Explore African governments and economies! Learn about democracy, market systems, and growth challenges.

Fill in the blanks: Nigeria and Kenya both are presidential democracies because the people vote directly for the leader. South Africa is a parliamentary democracy because the legislative body votes for the president.South Africa's economy is the closest to a market economy, which means they allow more entrepreneurshipand less government control. Nigeria and Kenya both have more governmentinvolvement in their economies. Fill in the blanks South Africa's economy is one of the richest and most industrialized countries in Africa because they have abundant natural resources. Additionally they have a high literacy rate and they have industrialized their economy. Nigeria has vast oil resources but the oil wealth is not distributed evenly among the people (it's controlled by just a few people), so that lowers the standard of living. To achieve economic growth, Nigeria and other African countries have had to overcome many challenges, including corrupt leadership of new governments formed after independence, serious health problems, and sometimes not enough food (famine). Countries are experiencing economic growth as they make the transition from economies that are more based on agriculture to economies more based on industry. When countries invest in their human capital, they should have increased education and training that should lead to higher GDP for the country. Yet when countries struggle with diseases, corrupt government, and civil wars, their economy is very negatively impacted. Especially, when there is a civil war, food supply is disrupted when people have to flee from fighting. HIV has been an ongoing health issue that many countries face because of a lack of education and struggling economies limit access to medical care. Most countries have found that they operate best as a mixed economy, where some level of government control is combined with private businesses. South Africa has a mixed economy but leans towards market because they allow companies to choose what to produce and how to produce, but the government controls inflation and has some government owned businesses. A pure market economy would allow for all private businesses to make their own decisions and there would be NO state run companies or farms. Command economy Government makes the decisions about what to produce. Parliamentary Democracy People elect the legislature, the legislature elects the leader Presidential Democracy People elect the leader directly, vote separately for the legislative body Tariff Tax on imported goods, makes the Imports more expensive to buy Quota Limit on the number of goods brought into a country for sale Capital goods investing in new technology, factories, and machinery Human capital investing in skills and training for your workers Currency Exchange Necessary for buyers and sellers to pay each other when they have international trade Artificial political boundaries Led to ethnic conflicts after independence for many countries F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela worked together to help end apartheid in South Africa