Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:37:53.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Political Impediments to Economic Rationality: Explaining Zimbabwe's Failure to Reform its Public Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

After Many years of exhortations, it is now widely claimed that African governments are beginning to implement the reforms needed to fundamentally alter their economies.1 Zimbabwe, after achieving independence 15 years later than most of the continent, has been singled out as a country that immdiately recognised the lessons of African economic failures and therefore adopted more rational policies.2 However, efforts to rationalise the public sector have often proceeded much slower than other reforms designed to reverse ‘the trend of chronic economic decline’, notably by reducing over-valued currencies, increasing agricultural prices, and lowering real urban wages.3 Even Zimbabwe, despite its record of relatively good economic management, has not been able to adopt a package of policies which would resolve the severe problems of its parastatals, namely those companies/corporations/other organisations owned by the state that operate outside the formal governmental apparatus. In Zimbabwe specifically and in Africa generally, the political imperatives of leaders have often prevented the adoption, let alone the implementation of comprehensive public-sector reforms.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Page 67 note 1 See, for instance, the statement by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of African Affairs, Lyman, Princeton, in ‘Economic Policy Initiative for Africa’, U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 98th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., 7 February 1984, p. 31;Google Scholar and Organisation of African Unity, Africa's Submission to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Africa's Economic and Social Crisis (Addis Ababa, 1986), p. 19.Google Scholar

Page 67 note 2 For instance, see Herbst, Jeffrey, ‘Societal Pressures and Government Choices: agricultural price policy in Zimbabwe’, in Comparative Politics (New York), 20, 1988, p. 265.Google Scholar

Page 67 note 3 World Bank, Financing Adjustment with Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1986–1990 (Washington, D.C., 1986), pp. 12.Google Scholar

Page 68 note 1 O.A.U. op. cit. p. 36. See also U.S. Agency for International Development, Congressional Presentation Fiscal Year 1989. Annex 1: Africa (Washington, D.C., 1987).Google Scholar

Page 68 note 2 Bratton, Michael, ‘The Comrades and the Countryside: the politics of agricultural policy in Zimbabwe’ in World Politics (Princeton), 39, 2, 01 1987, p. 199.Google Scholar

Page 68 note 3 Ravenhill, John, ‘Africa's Continuing Crisis: the elusiveness of development’, in Ravenhill, (ed.), Africa in Economic Crisis (Basingstoke, London, and New York, 1986), p. 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 69 note 1 Ndlela, D. B. et al. , Manufacturing Sector in Zimbabwe, Vol. 1 (Vienna, 1985), p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 69 note 2 World Bank, Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: an agenda for action (Washington, D.C., 1981), p. 156.Google Scholar

Page 69 note 3 Stoneman, Colin, ‘The Economy: recognizing the reality’, in Stoneman, (ed.), Zimbabwe's Prospects (London and Basingstoke, 1988), p. 51.Google Scholar

Page 69 note 4 Fay Chung, ‘Education: revolution or reform?’, in ibid. p. 118.

Page 69 note 5 Central Statistical Office, Statistical Yearbook, 1987 (Harare, 1987), p. 138. It should be noted that white farmers had a near monopoly on the country's good land.Google Scholar

Page 70 note 1 Source: Ministru of Finance, Economic Planning, and Development, Annual Economic Review of Zimbabwe, 1986 (Harare, 1987), p.27Google Scholar

Page 70 note 2 Statistical Yearbook, 1987, p. 46.

Page 70 note 3 Government of Zimbabwe, First Five-Year National Development Plan, 1986–1990, Vol. 1 (Harare, 1986), pp. 13 and 19.Google Scholar

Page 70 note 4 Chidzero, B. T. G., Budget Statement, 1987 (Harare, 1987), p. 4.Google Scholar

Page 70 note 5 ibid. p. 38.

Page 71 note 2 Statistical Yearbook, 1987, p. 52.

Page 71 note 3 Ministry of Finance, Economic Development, and Planning, Socio-Economic Review, 1980–1985 (Harare, 1986), p. 23.Google Scholar

Page 71 note 4 Statistical Yearbook, 1987, p. 53, and Annual Economic Review of Zimbabwe, 1986, p. 26.

Page 72 note 1 First Five-Year National Development Plan, p. 42,Google Scholar and ‘Deficit “Unacceptably” High’, in The Financial Gazette (Harare), 29 07 1988,Google Scholar quoted in U.S. State Department, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, D.C.), 11 08 1988, p. 31.Google Scholar

Page 72 note 2 Report of the [Chelliah] Commission of Inquiry into Taxation (Harare, 1986), p. 25;Google Scholarand Burney, Mahmud A., ‘Zimbabwe – A View from Outside’, Annual Congress of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, Victoria Falls, 22 June 1988, p. 5. According to the Chelliah Commission, Zimbabwe had an average savings rate of 10 per cent between 1980 and 1983, compared to 24 per cent for ‘lower middle-income countries’.Google Scholar

Page 72 note 3 Burney, op. cit. p. 2.

Page 72 note 4 Chelliah Commission, p. 11.

Page 72 note 5 Chidzero, op. cit. p. 31.

Page 73 note 1 Lal, Deepak, ‘The Political Economy of Economic Liberalization’, in The World Bank Economic Review (Washington, D.C.), 1, 2, 01 1987, pp. 287–8.Google Scholar

Page 73 note 2 Chidzero, op. cit. pp. 22–4.

Page 73 note 3 ‘Budget Offers Investment Incentives’, in African Business (London), 09 1988, p. 52.Google Scholar

Page 73 note 4 The Financial Gazette, 29 July 1988, p. 1.

Page 74 note 1 Sources: Sunday Mail (Harare), 4 01 1981, and Herald (Harare), 27 October 1982, 19 January 1984, 10 April 1986, 12 April and 7 May 1987.Google Scholar

Page 74 note 2 One Zimbabwean official told the author in 1988 that at independence the entire top layer of parastatals was filled by ‘refugee politicians’ who had to be rewarded after years of travail.

Page 75 note 1 Chelliah Commission, p. 265.

Page 75 note 2 ibid. p. 264.

Page 75 note 3 Riddell, Roger C., ‘Zimbabwe's Experience of Foreign Investment Policy’, in Papers and Proceedings of the [Commonwealth Secretarial] Seminar on Foreign Investment: policies and prospects (London, 1985), p. 123.Google Scholar

Page 75 note 4 See Clarke, D. G., Foreign Companies and International Investment in Zimbabwe (Gwelo, 1980), p. 32.Google Scholar

Page 76 note 1 Herald, 18 April 1985.

Page 76 note 2 These fears are expressed in Public Service Commission, Report on the Seminar on the Roles of Ministers and Senior Civil Servants in Policy-Making, Implementation and Review in the Government of Zimbabwe (Harare, 1982), p. 16.Google Scholar

Page 76 note 3 Government of Zimbabwe, Transitional National Development Plan (Harare, 1982), p. 21.Google Scholar

Page 76 note 4 Hansard (Harare), 26 01 1982, p. 1382.Google Scholar

Page 76 note 5 Herald, 25 July 1981.

Page 77 note 1 Hawkins, A. M., ‘Public Policy and the Zimbabwe Economy’, U.S. Agency for International Development, Harare, 1985, p. 27.Google Scholar

Page 77 note 2 Personal communication, Harare, 1988.

Page 77 note 3 Cf. Hyden, Goran, No Shortcuts to Progress: African development management in perspective (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983), ‘Preference for Parastatals’, pp. 96–9.Google Scholar

Page 77 note 4 Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, p. 38.

Page 77 note 5 Herald, 22 April 1988.

Page 77 note 6 Statistical yearbook, 1987, p. 99.

Page 78 note 1 [Smith] Commission of Inquiry into Parastatals, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Corporation (Harare, 1986), pp. 135–6.Google Scholar

Page 78 note 2 ibid.National Railways of Zimbabwe (Harare, 1987), p. 74.Google Scholar

Page 78 note 3 ibid.Air Zimbabwe Corporation (Harare, 1986), pp. 68, 85, and 90–108.Google Scholar

Page 78 note 4 National Railways of Zimbabwe, pp. 156 and 168.

Page 78 note 5 ibid. p. 42.

Page 78 note 6 Herald, 30 June 1988, p. 8.

Page 79 note 1 Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Corporation, pp. 170–5.

Page 79 note 2 Burney, op. cit. p. 5.

Page 79 note 3 There is a long tradition in Africa of inquiries which produce stunning indictments of parastatal operations and whose findings are subsequently ignored. For example, although the Report of Coker Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of Certain Statutory Corporations in Western Nigeria (Lagos, 1962) found that the Action Group was funding its political activities by siphoning off money from parastatals, similar abuses were allowed to persist for many years in Nigeria.Google Scholar

Page 80 note 1 Herald, 30 June 1988, p. 1.

Page 80 note 2 ‘Chidzero Answers his Critics on State Economic Policy’, in ibid. 29 July 1988, p. 10, reprinted in U.S. State Department, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Sub-Saharan Africa, 12 August 1988, p. 21.

Page 81 note 1 Personal communication, Washington, D.C., 1988.

Page 82 note 1 Babi, Don, ‘The World Bank and the IMF: rolling back the state or backing its role?’, in Vernon, Raymond (ed.), The Promise of Privatization (New York, 1988), p. 265.Google Scholar

Page 83 note 1 Cf. Bates, Robert H., Markets and States in Tropical Africa: the political basis of agricultural policies (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981).Google Scholar

Page 83 note 2 Wilson, Ernest J. III, ‘Privatization in Africa: domestic origins, current status and future scenarios’, in Issue: quarterly journal of opinion (Los Angeles), 16, 2, 1988, p. 24.Google Scholar