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Tanzania: democracy and the one‐party state*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

William Tordoff
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Extract

In Tanzania, as in other legally established one-party states, it is not appropriate to think in conventional terms of a government and an opposition. For while such states allow free discussion, perhaps within fairly broad limits, they proscribe free association outside the single party system. Those who disagree fundamentally with the ruling party are not free to form a rival political association in order to promote their own views. They must either keep quiet and conform, or seek to advance their cause by resorting to unconstitutional action.

It follows therefore that in order to test the ‘democracy’ of a oneparty state, different questions have to be asked than in the case of a country where two or more parties are allowed to operate. Taking political competition as a central issue in any one party system, the questions are: how much political competition is judged legitimate ? Where, and within what limits, is competition encouraged ? How far is it real or nominal ? It is also relevant to ask whether interest groups can find satisfaction within the single-party structure and how stable is the system as a whole.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , 01 December 1967 , pp. 599 - 614
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1967

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References

1 It lost Mbulu to a TANU rebel‐candidate, Mr H.E. Sarwatt, who was readmitted to the party when the republic was inaugurated in December 1962.

2 Nyerere, Julius K., Freedom and Unity: A Selection from Writings and Speeches, 1952–65, Dar es Salaam, 1966, p. 158 Google Scholar.

3 Printed in ibid., pp. 162–71.

4 Presidential election, November 1962: Nyerere – 1,127,978; Zuberi Mtcmvu – 21,276. Tanganyika Gazette, 30 November 1962; General Notice No. 2814.

5 Mr F. C. Masanja (Kwimba), a former chief, resigned from TANU in 1962 and sat as an independent until he rejoined the party in 1965. Chief A. S. Fundikira (Tabora) left TANU towards the end of 1963 but rejoined it following the mutiny early the next year.

6 An example was the Chiefs (Abolition of Office: Consequential Provision) Bill, 1963, which indemnified the Kilimanjaro District Council from paying the heavy damages for loss of office awarded by a High Court judge to Thomas Marealle, former Paramount Chief of the Wachagga.

7 Nyerere, Julius K., ‘One‐Party System’, Spearhead, Salaam, Dar es, 01 1963 , vol. II, no. 1, p. 13 Google Scholar. This address was subsequently published as a separate pamphlet under the title Democracy and the Party System.

8 Ibid., p. 21.

9 Ibid., p. 23.

10 Ibid., p. 21.

11 Report of the Presidential Commission on the Establishment of a Democratic One Party State, Dar es Salaam, 1965, pp. 16–20.

12 Yes – 2,519,866; No – 92,359.

13 Forty‐one of the forty‐four members have been nominated by President Nyerere, while three others serve ex officio.

14 Speech to Parliament, 12 October 1965; reported in The Standard, Dar es Salaam, 13 October 1965.

15 National Executive Committee (Powers and Privileges) Act. No. 49 of 1965.

16 Report of the Presidential Commission … One Parsty State, op. cit., p. 16.

17 Ibid., p. 25; Proposals of the Tanzania Government on Local Government Councils, Dar es Salaam, Government Paper No. 1–1966, p. 2.

18 Report of the Presidential Commission, op. cit., p. 21.

19 Nyerere, Julius, ‘A Statement of Policies’, Punch, London, 16 03 1966 , P. 371 Google Scholar.

20 The Arusha Declaration was approved by the TANU national executive committee which met at Arusha in northern Tanzania from 26 to 29 January 1967. The Standard, 6 February 1967; The Nationalist, Dares Salaam, 6 February 1967.

21 Editorial, The Nationalist, 6 February 1967.

22 The Standard, 6 February 1967.

23 Report of the Presidential Special Committee of Enquiry into Co‐operative Movement and Marketing Boards, Dar es Salaam, 1966, p. 4.

24 The plan provided for three months of initial training, two months of nationbuilding, eighteen months in a substantive post for which the trainee was qualified and which he intended to take up as his future career, and one month for final national service training. Proposals of the Tanzania Government on National Service as Applied to University Graduates and School Leavers, Dar es Salaam, 1966, Government Paper No. 2 – 1966, p. 2. The National Service (Amendment) Act, No. 64 of 1966, added university students to the class of persons liable to be called up for national service.

25 In withdrawing government scholarships from Tanzanian students, Nyerere acted in his capacity as executive President rather than as Chancellor of the University of East Africa.

26 Nyerere regarded this as ‘quite a good phrase – I think it is a little revolution, a sudden change and a really important change.’ Interview with Derek Taylor, Times of Zambia, Lusaka, 15 February 1967.

27 Report of the Presidential Commission, op. cit., pp. 15–16.

28 The Standard, 6 February 1967.

29 Reporter, Nairobi, 13 January 1967, p. 19.

30 Nyerere is reported to have said that ‘The time had come to define and make each person understand what socialism was.’ Arusha Declaration and Speech by President Nyerere, The Standard, 6 February 1967.

31 'One Party System', Spearhead, January 1963, p. 21.

32 Nyerere is reported to have said in a recent speech that ‘Anyone hindering progress would face the consequences.’Times of Zambia, to February 1967.

33 Cf. editorial, The Nationalist, 6 February 1967: 'Indeed, we can anticipate that there will be those who will desire no alteration in the status quo preferring the profits of the existing economic order. To [sic] them we have declared war.'

34 Contrast, for example, the Arusha Declaration with Nkrumah's ‘Dawn Broadcast’ of 8 April 1961, in which he issued a directive limiting the amount of property to be held by members of the government and party officials. Its ultimate effect was that of a damp squib rather than a bomb‐shell.

35 The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah, Edinburgh, 1957, p. X.