A PROJECT TO BE REALIZED - GLOBAL LIBERALISM AND CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

Political action cannot be understood without taking account of 'ideas ', though the links between the two remain difficult to theorise. In t his article, an attempt is made to sketch the dynamic, of liberalism, which is partly associated with a new stratum of state functionaries, but also with a new way of constructing-moral space based, in part, on the mastery of 'social science'. The article shows that the end of th e Cold War has given the universalist assumptions of liberalism greate r prominence, and thus helps to ground various practices of a 'new wor ld order', particularly in relation to Africa. It is suggested, howeve r, that the new forms of intervention are characterised by certain con tradictions and are also likely to have effects that are unforseen by their promoters.