It is used to describe African nations whose main function is balancing the instability of internal political control against the influence of external factors.
Due to weak internal control, this external dependence produced an outward orientation focused on ‘guarding the gate’: gatekeepers collected most of their revenues from taxes on imports and exports, controlled entry and exit visas, distributed foreign aid, decided who could move currency in or out, and issued licenses that determined who could engage in business activities (2002.: 5, 97, 157).
Independence, however, greatly exacerbated the negative consequences of gate-keeping because whereas before it was taken for granted who would control the gate (along with the power and wealth derived therefrom), in the post-colonial period there was no external military force to impose order.
Furthermore, unlike the colonial powers (at least before the "development era" after about 1940) African rulers wanted to impose their authority internally in order to affect a far-reaching transformation of the economy and society.
[2] Cooper draws on other mentions of the term "gate-keeper," especially the influential book The State in Africa, published in French in 1989 and in English in 1993, which stated "In Nigeria in the 1970s, General Obasanjo popularised the term 'gatekeeper' to describe the senior civil servants' intermediary role between the international environment and the national market.
"[6] Cooper does not provide specific thorough statistical evidence for his main claim about "centrality of tariffs, as opposed to other kinds of taxes, to state revenue.