The African growth spurt of the 2000s and 2010s saw a resurgence of developmental ambitions. Special economic zones (SEZs) stood out as one of the main industrial policy instruments deployed during this period. This book seeks to elucidate the reasons for the diffusion of SEZs, variations in SEZ design, and quality of implementation, focusing on the cases of Angola and Ethiopia, two of Africa’s most assertive post-liberation regimes.

I contend that the logic of industrial policymaking in African post-liberation regimes can be conceived of as the outcome of political struggles carried out within a shared set of ideas, policy “styles”, and opportunities for unequal exchange with the outside world, or “extraversion”. Industrial policy therefore derives from the interaction between domestic political dynamics, regimes’ historically inherited ideational dispositions, and changes to the global political economy.

To bear out this argument, I trace the trajectory of SEZ policy in Angola and Ethiopia, drawing on over 130 elite interviews, archival data, and proprietary surveys of SEZ firms. I show that recourse to SEZs and differences in their design can be explained by how pre-existing developmentalist ambitions were fuelled by an enabling external economic conjuncture, particularly the rise of China. Policy styles in turn left their mark on the progression of SEZ policy: the EPRDF’s “disputatious” policy style assigned great importance to theorization and learning, ensuring that SEZs’ technical quality improved over time. In contrast, the MPLA’s “bifurcated” policy style featured a gap between developmentalist aspirations and the reality of pervasive rent-seeking, leading to an essentially unchanged, and failed, agenda.

By highlighting the role of shared ideas in shaping industrial policy, explaining their historical and political origins, and examining the impact of a changing global political economy, this thesis contributes to the study of authoritarianism and the comparative political economy of industrialization.