Econ_May_05_2018

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16 Leaders The Economist May 5th 2018
2 duces themto spend a year, and sometimes several, pursuing a
dream that is likely to be dashed.
Even in terms of égalité—the issue that matters most to its
supporters—the “republican” system fails. Measured by the
share of people who get degrees but whose parents didn’t,
France does not do well by the disadvantaged, performing be-
lowaverage among rich countries. But it provides plenty ofop-
portunities for the rich and clever, through an elite system that
floats above the public onewithwhich themassesmust make
do. Around 8% of students go to the grandes écoles, the highly
selective elite universities with whose existence French egali-
tarians seemstrangely comfortable. Around18%attend private
universities. And many who can afford it go abroad. France
has one of the highest rates in the rich world of study abroad.
In a survey by French students were more
satisfied with their time abroad than those of any other big
European country; foreigners studying in France were less sat-
isfied than those in any other such country.
Because the risk of a backlash is so high, MrMacron is wise
to move slowly. But if he is to make French higher education
more efficient and more equitable, he needs to succeed in
these first steps, and then build something better. America is
not a greatmodel. Its system is highly selective at the top, not at
all at the bottom, and has a huge drop-out rate, the conse-
quences ofwhich are borne by the students who emerge with
no qualifications but lots of debt. Britain’s and Australia’s sys-
tem—selective universities paid for largely by graduates who
are earning enough to afford the loan repayments, and a low
drop-out rate—is probably the best on offer. But it will be a long
time before France is ready for that sort of revolution. 7
IF ANY country ever needed a
fresh start, Angola does. It is
more corrupt thanNigeria; its in-
fant mortality is higher than Af-
ghanistan’s. Until September it
had been ruled by the same
man, President José Eduardo
dos Santos, for 38 years—more
than twice as long as most Angolans have been alive. Even in
retirement, many expected Mr dos Santos to continue pulling
the strings; he remains head of the ruling party. Hardly anyone
expected his successor, João Lourenço, to break the chokehold
that the dos Santos family and their cronies have on the An-
golan economy. So Mr Lourenço’s first few months in office
have pleasantly surprised (seeMiddle East &Africa section).
He has oustedMr dos Santos’s daughter, reputed to be Afri-
ca’s richest woman, from her perch at the top of the national
oil firm, and sacked the former president’s son from his job
running the sovereign-wealth fund. He has even allowed the
junior Mr dos Santos to be charged with fraud, which he de-
nies, over the transfer of $500mout of the country. Thatwould
never have happened under his father’s regime. The $640bn
question is whether Mr Lourenço’s anti-corruption drive is
real, or whether he plans to replace one set of snouts at the
troughwith another.
$640bn is the amount of money that Angola is thought to
have made from oil and gas exports since 2002. That was the
year its ghastly, three-decade civil war ended, leaving its peo-
ple traumatised and its soil studded with landmines. Soon af-
terwards oil prices surged, giving Africa’s second-largest oil
producer a chance to reap a huge peace dividend and rebuild
its bombed-out cities. This chance was not entirely squan-
dered—Angolahasmore roads anddams and skyscrapers than
before, and its people are a bit less poor. But the main benefits
of the oil boomflowed to a tiny elite.
Tens of billions of petrodollars simply vanished. Many
more were grabbed by bigwigs who won permits for projects
and let their foreign partners do the work. Practically every-
thing in Angola costs more because cronies take a cut: Luanda,
the capital, was recently ranked as the most expensive city in
theworld for expats. Genuine entrepreneurs are crushed. “It is
virtually impossible for meaningful economic activity to oc-
cur outside the charmed circle of the politically protected,”
wrote Ricardo Soares de Oliveira in “Magnificent and Beggar
Land: Angola since the Civil War”. When the oil price crashed
in 2014, Angola was left with stalled growth, vast debts to Chi-
na and no export industry of any consequence to replace hy-
drocarbons. This is themessMr Lourençomust clean up.
Lourenço’s toil
Some early signs are encouraging. Besides sidelining the dos
Santos clan, he has pushed through a law making foreign in-
vestment easier, by removing a requirement to have a local
partner, and asked the IMF how to stabilise the economy. But
this is not nearly enough. Since Angola’s biggest problem is
corruption, the government’smost urgent tasks are to promote
transparency and accountability. A good start would be to al-
low an independent audit of the country’s public debt. How
was it created, andwhere did themoney go? The opposition is
calling for such an audit, and some members of the ruling
party would support it. Those who object are largely people
with something to hide. Unfortunately, they are a powerful
constituency in Angola. It remains to be seenwhether Mr Lou-
renço has thewill and thewherewithal to defeat them.
The rulingparty is no longerMarxist, but it still seeks to con-
trol toomanyaspects ofAngolan life. Agrowth-blocking forest
of licences and regulations enriches those with the power to
grant orwaive them. It shouldbe slashed. Politicalmeddling in
Angola’s courts grants impunity to the mighty. It should end.
And assaults on press freedom shield the elite from much-
needed scrutiny. Rafael Marques de Morais andMariano Bras,
two graft-illuminating journalists, are on trial—behind closed
doors—for insulting the former attorney-general. The cases
against them should be dropped, and the media unmuzzled.
Mr Lourenço once promised to root out corruption even
among the most powerful, adding that “the law is for every-
one.” Angola can escape from his predecessor’s long, dark
shadowonly if hemeans it. 7
Governance in Africa
Augean Angola
CONGO
ZAMBIA
ZIMBABWE
BOTSWANA
NAMIBIA
ANGOLA
Cabinda
Luanda
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
500 km
Sacking the old president’s childrenwas a good start. But João Lourençomust domore to cleanupAngola
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