Great post. Definitely learned a lot in the political angle but I think my main issue is that I think you are conflating industrialization with higher incomes. When I think of the word "industrialization" I think of developing more industries. Or going from primary industries(farming, fishing, mining) to secondary (manufacturing).
Botswana has higher incomes but it still isn't "industrialized". Botswana's main export with the firm De Beers is diamond mining which is still the primary sector.
But Botswana doesn't have a developed aerospace, electronics, manufacturing, or even component manufacturing industry. To me, Botswana is just a richer natural resource exporter because it made the decision to continue joint ventures with Debeers instead of fully nationalizing diamonds which led to government looting of diamond revenue like Sierra Leone under Siaka Stevens
Great post. Definitely learned a lot in the political angle but I think my main issue is that I think you are conflating industrialization with higher incomes. When I think of the word "industrialization" I think of developing more industries. Or going from primary industries(farming, fishing, mining) to secondary (manufacturing).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_sector_of_the_economy#:~:text=The%20primary%20sector%20of%20the,%2C%20fishing%2C%20forestry%20and%20mining
Botswana has higher incomes but it still isn't "industrialized". Botswana's main export with the firm De Beers is diamond mining which is still the primary sector.
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bwa
But Botswana doesn't have a developed aerospace, electronics, manufacturing, or even component manufacturing industry. To me, Botswana is just a richer natural resource exporter because it made the decision to continue joint ventures with Debeers instead of fully nationalizing diamonds which led to government looting of diamond revenue like Sierra Leone under Siaka Stevens