This chapter identifies why the descriptive changes observed in Chapter 2 took place. To answer this question, it proposes a model of structural change being responded to by the key actors during the nomination process. These structural changes are grouped into three categories: changing electoral incentives, new regulatory reforms, and technological developments. These changes elicited responses from actors within the party network in terms of organizational structure and electoral strategy, by candidates in terms of whether and how they ran for office, and among voters in terms of their participation and motivation in nationalized congressional primaries.

The introduction offers a brief overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and its implications on different sectors. It then discusses the opportunities and risks of structural transformation that will be brought on by technological innovation. Following this, the 4IR is framed as an inevitable acceleration of digitalization, resulting in market disruptions that the African continent cannot escape. After this, questions about the implications, advantages, key players, and leaders of the 4IR are discussed. This concludes with the final question of Africa’s ability to grow and develop in the 4IR. The research questions are followed by an explanation of 4IR technologies and the methodology of the book, in addition to an overview of the remaining chapters.

The afterword focuses on the surprising connections of a century of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) history to larger global developments outside of China, considering the potential future development of the Party, either towards more democratisation and power sharing, increasing focus on domestic challenges, or a new Marxist-Leninist world order with Beijing at it’s ideological center. The fate of international socialism is contrasted with the purges of both Stalin and Mao, which are shown to have led directly to the Sino-Soviet conflict from the late 1950s on. The lasting significance of the collapse of the Soviet Union for the CCP provides context for the increasingly close relationship between Xi and Putin, who share a mutual concern over Muslim separatism and demographic shifts within their countries. Connections are drawn between the more positive impacts of the Non-Aligned Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the Belt and Road initiative, and darker history of global Maoism in Peru and Cambodia, with the latter spurring modernization following a successful Vietnamese intervention. The CCP’s long-standing difficulty of separating Party from ethnicity, particularly in its Southeast Asian allies, is contrasted with inspiration drawn from Japan and Korea in the post-Mao era and the legacy of falling regulation in global trade over the subsequent three decades. The afterword concludes with an exploration of the gradual end of China’s “peaceful rise” during the Xi era, touching on the daunting problems of a declining workforce, environmental degradation, and continuing wide income gaps which face the country’s leaders today, while also praising its pragmatic macroeconomic policies, impressive technological development, and openness to trade relative to the increasingly divided, insular, and unstable US under Trump.

Patents as “exclusive privileges” were introduced in India in 1856 when it was a colony of the British Empire. Many developed countries, then as now, used patent systems as policy levers to encourage importation and adoption of inventions in order to strengthen their technological capabilities. Yet even under the influence of British patent law, by the time of its independence in 1947 India was technologically far behind. This chapter examines this issue by focusing on patent policy and policy making in colonial India to highlight how colonial constraints on the political and legislative freedom of the Government of India had an adverse effect on choosing a patent policy conducive to India’s cultural interest. The analysis draws from the empirical evidence of inventors’ experiences of obtaining and enforcing patent rights in British India, and the role of various stakeholders in influencing the patent policy. It specifically outlines the case of patentees Messrs Thomson & Mylne, whose efforts led to the first large-scale commercialization of an Indian patent and reassessment of the proposed patent law vis-à-vis the needs of the Indian agricultural sector.