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Professor (by courtesy)
Office Location(s): 5508 Haven Hall734.763.5037 pitchera@umich.edu Department of African American Studies View Curriculum Vitae
Anne Pitcher studies the comparative politics of developing countries, especially those in Africa. Her research has explored the political economy of colonialism in Lusophone Africa; the creation of credible commitments to economic reform and the politics of private sector development across Sub-Saharan Africa. She has published widely on these topics in book chapters, edited books and referred journals such as Comparative Politics and Review of African Political Economy. Her most recent book, Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa’s Democracies, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012. The book offers an explanation of the different trajectories of private sector development across contemporary Africa. Its main argument is that the outcome of economic reforms depends not only on the kinds of institutional arrangements adopted by states in order to create or expand their private sectors, but also on the nature of party system competition and the quality of democracy in particular countries. To illustrate this claim, the book draws on several original data sets covering twenty-seven countries in Africa, and detailed case studies of the privatization process in Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Professor Pitcher is currently examining the role of bureaucratic agencies in countries undergoing rapid political change and she has a new project comparing housing policies in Africa.
