RULING CLASS DOMINATION AND LUMPEN PROLETARIAT MARGINALITY: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA, KENYA, AND SOUTH AFRICA, 2015-2025

Existing studies of African political economy have extensively examined elite domination, neo-patrimonialism, inequality, and political marginalisation, but comparatively limited attention has been devoted to how ruling-class power is reproduced through its relationship with the lumpen proletariat across different African political economies. Addressing this gap, this study examines how ruling-class domination interacts with lumpen proletariat marginality and the implications of this relationship for political and socio-economic development in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa between 2015 and 2025. The analysis is anchored primarily in Marxist class analysis, complemented by dependency and postcolonial state perspectives. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative comparative desk-review design based on the purposive selection and thematic analysis of twenty five peer-reviewed scholarship, official publications, policy documents, and reports from reputable national and international institutions. Evidence is organised comparatively around patterns of elite accumulation, socio-economic marginalisation, political mobilisation,patronage, informal governance, and developmental consequences across the three countries. The findings demonstrate that unemployment, inequality, urban precarity, and expanding informal economies have enlarged politically and economically marginal populations, while sections of the ruling class strategically incorporate these groups into patronage networks,electoral mobilisation, political violence, and informal systems of political control. Such relationships reproduce dependency, weaken institutional accountability,and constrain inclusive development, although marginalised groups also retain the capacity for collective resistance and political agency.