Professor Leonard Wantchekon examines the mechanisms of state capture in the low-income African countries and discusses how these mechanisms contribute to the political distortions and development. He briefly presents benchmark growth models which allow for a role of politicians and government, with: public investment, contract enforcement and innovation and technological change. Wantchekon is a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and the President and Founder of the African School of Economics. His research interests include political economy, economic history and development economics. A scholar with diverse interests, he has made substantive and methodological contributions to the literatures on clientelism and state capture, resource curse and democratization.