An Original Comparative Political Economy of Cooperative Sector Development in West Africa

The cooperative sectors of West African countries share historical roots in colonial agricultural organisation but have diverged significantly in size, vitality, and social impact, reflecting different post-colonial policy trajectories, political economies, and institutional environments. A comparative political economy analysis of this divergence, examining the structural and political determinants of cooperative sector development across West African states with systematic application to Nigeria's position within the regional landscape, has not been conducted in the cooperative economics literature. This study conducted an original comparative political economy analysis of cooperative sector development across eight West African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Benin Republic. A comparative historical-institutionalist methodology employing process tracing and systematic comparative analysis was adopted. Colonial institution analysis traced how different colonial cooperative administration models (French dirigisme versus British voluntarism) generated distinct post-colonial cooperative sector trajectories. Post-colonial political economy analysis examined how state-cooperative relations, structural adjustment impacts, democratisation processes, and agricultural commodity policy shaped sector development from independence to the present. Quantitative comparative analysis drew on cooperative sector data from national cooperative registries, FAO cooperative surveys, and original data collection, constructing comparable sector development indicators for all eight countries for the period 2000 to 2023. Nigeria's development trajectory was explained as a case of policy fragmentation, federalist regulatory complexity, and missed institutional consolidation opportunities relative to the Ghana and Senegal comparators. The study provides an original comparative political economy contribution to West African cooperative development scholarship.

Keywords: comparative political economy, cooperative sector development, West Africa, institutional analysis, Nigeria