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Development in Zimbabwe: Strategy and Tactics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Michael Bratton
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Extract

Events in independent Zimbabwe have confounded pundits on the left and the right who assumed that African resistance to settler colonial rule was more revolutionary than nationalistic. How can the rather unexpected direction of political and economic change in Zimbabwe since April 1980 be understood? The Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) Government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe has committed itself to redress the severe social inequities of the past, but has decided, at least at the outset, to reach its goals through a prudent rather than a doctrinaire approach. What factors explain the current development strategy? Does the apparent accommodation of Z.A.N.U. (P.F.) with private capital signal a dangerous divergence from the stated goal of building socialism? Or does it represent an awakening to the idea that economic production, even if organised on capitalist lines, is a prerequisite of development in Africa?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 1981 , pp. 447 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

page 449 note 1 A useful definition of this concept is provided in Lijphart, Arend, The Politics of Accommodation: pluralism and democracy in the Netherlands (Berkeley, 1975), p. 103:Google Scholar ‘The term accommodation is here used in the sense of the settlement of divisive issues and conflicts where only a minimal consensus exists. Pragmatic solutions are forged for all problems.’

page 452 note 1 Skocpol, Theda, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge, 1979), p. 164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 453 note 1 For a summary of the Prime Minister's career, see Smiley, Xan, ‘Zimbabwe, Southern Africa and the Rise of Robert Mugabe’, in Foreign Affairs (New York), 58, Summer 1980, pp. 1062–4.Google Scholar

page 455 note 1 See, for example, Zimbabwe African National Union, Political Programme (Seattle, Washington, 1977);Google Scholar and Silundika, George, ‘Establishing a Socialist Base’, in Zimbabwe ZAPU 2 (Richmond, B.C., 1974).Google Scholar

page 456 note 1 World Bank, World Development Indicators (Washington, D.C., 1979) p. 14.Google Scholar

page 456 note 2 Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Capitalist World-Economy (New York and Cambridge 1979), pp. 68–76.Google Scholar

page 457 note 1 Clarke, Duncan, Foreign Companies and International Investment in Zimbabwe (London, Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1980), p. 168.Google Scholar

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page 460 note 1 Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Growth with Equity: an economic policy statement (Salisbury, 1981), pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

page 460 note 2 Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe, ZIMCORD: Let's Build Zimbabwe Together (sic) (Salisbury, 1981), p. 2.Google Scholar A similar emphasis can be found in Rhodesia. Proposals for a Five Year Programme of Development in the Public Sector (Salisbury, Ministry of Finance, 1979).Google Scholar

page 461 note 1 Economic Review (Salisbury), 09 1981, p. 1.Google Scholar

page 461 note 2 Growth with Equity, pp. 1–2.

page 462 note 1 ZIMCORD, op. cit. p. 17, projects 15 per cent annually.

page 462 note 2 United States Agency for International Development, Zimbabwe: country development strategy statement (Washington, D.C., 1981), p. 37.Google Scholar

page 463 note 1 Growth with Equity, p. 14. The July 1981 budget increased taxes by Z$225 million to cover a projected 37 per cent rise in Government spending.

page 463 note 2 ZIMCORD, op. cit. p. 2.

page 463 note 3 Minister of Mines, Nyagumbo, Maurice, in The Herald (Salisbury), 30 05 1981.Google Scholar

page 465 note 1 Sekeramayi, Sydney, Minister of Lands, Resettlement, and Rural Development, ‘Reply to the Presidential Speech: House of Assembly’, Salisbury, 18 06 1980.Google Scholar

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page 465 note 3 Moyo, Nelson, report of initial research findings, ‘Resettlement and Land Redistribution’, University of Zimbabwe, School of Social Studies Research Project, 26 01 1981.Google Scholar

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page 468 note 1 Growth with Equity, p. 17.

page 469 note 1 Interview with a senior official, Public Service Commission, 30 January 1981. Estimates for the figure at independence vary from 15 to 25 per cent, according to whether the baseline for calculating the proportion of black representation is (i) all positions listed in the official Detailed Establishment Tables (Salisbury, 1975) or (ii) positions actually occupied at the time of independence.

page 471 note 1 Growth with Equity, p. 5.

page 471 note 2 The Bulawayo municipal elections were delayed for security reasons until June 1981.

page 472 note 1 Harbeson, John, ‘Land and Rural Development in Independent Zimbabwe: a preliminary assessment’, Washington, D.C., Office of Rural Development and Development Administration, U.S.A.I.D., 1981Google Scholar, mimeographed.

page 472 note 2 Martin, Robert, ‘The Use of State Power to Overcome Underdevelopment’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 18, 2, 06 1980, p. 320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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page 473 note 2 Lijphart, op.cit. p. 103.