Civil society organisations have played a vital role in the relationship between the state and society. In Africa they have come into existence for different purposes, ranging from 'self-help', where the state has failed to help its citizens, to human rights, as the wave of democratisation has peaked, and economic rights, when a country's economy has crashed and governmental capacity declined to the extent that the population has had to take care of itself without help from the government. In Tanzania CSOs have had to play a more extensive role because many citizens are not politically competent and CSOs have had to take the lead in strengthening the demand side of the political equation. But this role is questionable in cases where CSOs have taken to speaking for and representing people in many forums without the consent of those they claim to represent. In the process CSOs, like NGOs, have compromised their autonomy, becoming close allies and partners of the state. The dilemma is that if they do not do this they cannot help the people they purport to help and if they do they are seen to be usurping the power of the people. The way forward is to empower citizens to assume their role as citizens and to ensure that the relationship between CSOs and the state remains beneficial to all. INTROdUCTIONCivil society organisations (CSOs) are groups set up to assist members of civil society (the space between individuals and the government) in a variety of ways, including politically, socially, and economically. CSOs in general can be divided into formal and informal. The former would include such organisations as labour unions, which adhere to codified rules and require governmental sanction to
Despite the fact that there is high agricultural policy density in Tanzania, implementation of the agricultural policies has remained ineffective. Studies to explain the causes of implementation ineffectiveness are vast. However, the political dimension of agricultural policy implementation is seldom systematically examined. Thus politics as a variable that can steer implementation has hitherto received a narrow focus. The article examines how the political dynamic has led to ineffective agricultural policy implementation in Tanzania. The article applies qualitative research methods. We used in-depth interviews with key agricultural and political stakeholders to uncover the effects of politics on agricultural policy implementation. Empirical data shows that the implementation of agricultural policies in Tanzania is vastly affected by politics. Politics has affected the allocation of resources required for effective policy implementation. The paper has also noted incidences of political capture in the form of threats, political interference, imprecise prioritisation, resource diversion, rent-seeking and embezzlement of policy implementation resources. Our analysis shows that politics matters in policy implementation. Politics has been a source of implementation disruptions when it is misapplied. This article champions the body of knowledge on the policy-politics dichotomy by arguing that applying politics rightly in the policy process can reduce implementation disruptions.
Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world and, as is the case with other poor countries, there have been, for the past 20 years, internal and external efforts to try to free the country from the woes of poverty. There are many theories about what went wrong in Tanzania. These range from colonial domination -and its attendant problems of dependency and underdevelopment -to those which target capitalism and its 'predatory' nature, leading, among other things, to unequal exchange on the world market, world division of labour, and so on (Ellis 1983;Dutkiewicz & Williams 1987) as well as the ubiquitous globalisation which currently affects many aspects of life. However, not everyone believes that these theories provide a plausible explanation for what happened and why. Some see the problem as structural and also cite the inappropriate policies pursued by many poor countries, which were candidly acknowledged by the Organisation of African Unity (1986, p 17). Others (eg, Babu 1991, pp 31-4, Shivji 1974 blame the way the policy was implemented. We will examine the causes of the predicament more closely and demonstrate how things are changing. TANZANIA: A BRIEF PROFILE At the time of the 2002 census the population of Tanzania was 34 million, about 24 per cent of whom lived in urban areas. It is widely held that 50 per cent of Tanzanians live below a locally defined poverty line while 36 per cent live in * This paper was originally published in Italian␣ under the title 'T anzania: l'economia politica della democratizzazione' in␣ Ariche e Orienti ol 8(3-4), 2006, pp 58-70.
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