It has become common practice among Africanist scholars either to treat Botswana as an oddity when it does not fit the African stereotype of the incompetent, oppressive, and corrupt state or to deny the significance of its deviance from the stereotype in order to maintain a portrait of Africa as a continent of unmitigated failure with regard to the human social enterprise. Using the Botswana case, this chapter will examine how state power was consolidated to win it legitimacy and authority in the context of the challenges of the colonial legacy, deteriorating conditions in the world economy, and the growth of civil society. In particular, the chapter will focus on two key areas of the governance of the public sector (the economy and the political system) to illustrate the development of the Botswana state and its relationship with non-state agencies.