Bureaucracy and Rural Socialism in Zambia

Quick, Stephen A.

doi:10.1017/s0022278x00002032

Cited by 17 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Occupational groups have long played an important part in getting out the vote in African politics. For example, the cooperative movement in Zambia was effectively a wing of the ruling party in the single-party era (Mwape, 1994;Quick, 1977). Not only were cooperatives a principal tool of the government's strategy for rural development, but they were expected to ensure that the countryside expressed its political loyalty at election time.…”

Section: Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Participation in a New Democracy

Bratton

1999

Comparative Political Studies

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Why, in a new African democracy, have citizens passed up opportunities for involvement in national political life? In explaining low levels of political participation in Zambia, this article tests competing arguments against an original set of survey data. It finds that gender is a better demographic predictor of participation than socioeconomic status and that attachments to traditional authority are conducive to political activism. Participation is shaped most powerfully, however, by the availability of political institutions that link citizen to state. Although institutional considerations are more important than cultural values in explaining participation, the former do not entirely displace the latter. Instead, the study finds a synergistic relationship between political party formation and citizen interest in politics in the early stages of building democracy. Theoretically, this finding suggests that the consolidation of political regimes, including democracy, is best conceived as a process of reciprocal codetermination between institution building and cultural change.

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Section: Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Participation in a New Democracy

Bratton

1999

Comparative Political Studies

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“…Similar to other contemporary commentaries, Quick presents ideological contest and 'irrational' government policy as explanations for subsequent events. 19 This article argues instead that the difficulties arising from the cooperative mechanization scheme were a manifestation of a wider contradiction arising from the development of agrarian societies. Whilst development involves the reconfiguration of existing social relationships to exploit labour and natural resources, it also involves conscious countervailing efforts to mitigate the impacts of these changes.…”

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confidence: 99%

Mass Production or Production by the Masses? Tractors, Cooperatives, and the Politics of Rural Development in Post-Independence Zambia

Bowman

2011

J. Afr. Hist.

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The fall of colonial regimes across Africa was accompanied by the rise in expectations for rapid and inclusive rural economic progress. In Zambia, the cooperative production unit was one of two key initiatives at the centre of the United National Independence Party's ambitious development efforts. The other was the tractor. By following these two interlinked initiatives in the years immediately following independence, this article contributes to the under-explored history of early postcolonial development. It argues that both the power of expert groups and the level of continuity between late colonial and postcolonial development was not always as great as has recently been suggested. Cooperative mechanization policies emerged from a confluence of competing claims over knowledge, power and resources. However, as is demonstrated, they also reflected more fundamental tensions in the development endeavour between the prioritization of economically efficient mass production, and inclusive development for the masses.

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“…Although the percentage share of the agricultural sector in the GDP increased after 1974, it still accounted for between 13 and 14 percent of total imports and contributed only a negligible 1 percent to exports, as indicated in table 1. 1970 1971 1976 1970 1973 1976 Percentage of GDP Zambia, 1974a, 1974b, Central Statistical Office, 1977 The performance of the rural cooperative societies in promoting participatory development, diffusion of innovation, and the marketing of agricultural commodities was equally spectacularly disappointing (Quick, 1977), despite the massive governmental inputs directed toward propping them up. 2 In 1975 alone over 688 agricultural cooperatives were replaced by family farming units.…”

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confidence: 99%

Rural Development Strategy and Performance in Zambia: An Evaluation of past Efforts

Ollawa¹

1978

African Studies Review

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As Zambia's Second National Development Plan gradually comes to an end and the country prepares to embark on its Third National Development Plan (hereafter TNDP), in January 1979 both the regime members and policy planners will more than ever before be confronted with the ominous task of matching intentions with performance. A major impetus for this rethinking of development strategy has been the product of a single fact: the strikingly poor performance of the rural sector during the period of the First (1966-1971) and Second National Development Plans (1972-76) (hereafter FNDP and SNDP). Despite the impressive record of economic growth rate achieved since independence in 1964 and despite the ostensible concern of the national leadership for rural development, the rural masses continue to be socially and economically the most relatively deprived social group in Zambian society. Aside from the issue of relative deprivation, other aspects of the poor performance of the rural sector are also discernible. For instance, not only did the anticipated integration or linkages between agricultural production and modern industry envisaged in the FNDP and SNDP (Republic of Zambia, 1966: 1971a) fail to materialize, but also the attraction of the high urban wage structure and mobility opportunities induced large-scale migration of relatively well educated and enterprising individuals to the urban centers. Thus, while 80 percent of the Zambian population lived in the rural areas in 1963, in 1969 it was 71 percent, and in 1974 it was further reduced to 65.5 percent. In direct proportion to the decline in rural population, the urban population has grown from 20 percent in 1963 to 29 percent in 1969 and 34.5 in 1974. Whereas the average annual population growth rate of Zambia's urban centers was 8.9 percent between 1963 and 1974, the average annual growth rate of the rural population was barely 0.5 percent. In 1977 the population of the urban centers stood at 38.5 percent (Central Statistical Office 1975; 1977). Aside from the issue of chronic under-utilization of migrant labor, massive unemployment has also been one of the most serious developmental problems posed to the Zambian regime.

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Bureaucracy and Rural Socialism in Zambia

Cited by 17 publications

References 2 publications

Political Participation in a New Democracy

Political Participation in a New Democracy

Mass Production or Production by the Masses? Tractors, Cooperatives, and the Politics of Rural Development in Post-Independence Zambia

Rural Development Strategy and Performance in Zambia: An Evaluation of past Efforts

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