A State of Misery: The Place of Welfare and Development in Dahomey (1957-1971)

Independent Dahomey enacted some limited welfare measures in favour of civil servants and industrial workers, while directing authoritarian development policies towards the peasantry. This article explains the reasons for these different strategies of the postcolonial state. It also shows how foreign development agencies resisted the inclusion of health and education measures in development projects, despite recommendations from experts to do so. This article seeks to intersect the histories of the welfare state and the developmental state.