Africa in the Attentiveness of Great Powers: Development and Partnership

The aim of the Master's thesis is to analyze the growing interest of the global economic system centers in the region of developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the account on weakening position of the West in relation to this region. The thesis will be structured into two sections. The first part will focus on the relationship between the West and countries of the African continent and the circumstances allowing not only the access of new challengers, but also alternative development models. In this respect the thesis will use the theoretical works of Adrian Leftwich and Claus Offe dealing with the issues of democratization and economic development and their mutual incompatibility. The second part of the thesis will analyze relations with these emerging, non-western power centers and their alternative development models. The research question of the thesis is formulated whether these alternative centers of the global economic system in the region of sub-Saharan Africa propagate their own conception of development models, with proclaimed respect for local conditions, as a challenger to the Western concept of development policy. The hypothesis assumes a certain degree of autonomy in case of developing countries in choosing "their" partner center. These centers are forced to offer certain..