Foreign Aid and Democracy: The Case of Tanzania
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis discusses the role of foreign aid on democratization processes and democratic consolidations in Tanzania; increasingly, foreign aid has become a tool used by western countries in attempts to promote the emergence or consolidation of democracy in other countries. But what is the relationship between foreign aid and democracy? Does foreign aid promote democracy? If so how? Tanzania became independent in 1961 from British colonial rule. While most neighboring states have gone through violent conflicts, Tanzania has managed to implement extensive reforms without armed political conflicts. After independence, Tanzania under the charismatic leadership of Nyerere developed African based socialism “Ujamaa family-hood” which saw independence as a means of self- reliance and not depending on foreign aid. After the policy of Ujamaa failed, Tanzania has become highly dependent on foreign aid for developments. Hence, Tanzania is an interesting case for the foreign aid and democracy research. This study first explores the ways in which Tanzania introduced multi-parties in1992 and the role of donor countries. The question is residing what role foreign aid has played in this case? The Second part o f this thesis has discussed democratic consolidation in Tanzania and the role of foreign aid. The question to what extent is Tanzania moving towards consolidation of democracy and the role of donor’s countries is analyzed. The analysis is based on secondary documents and semi structured interview collected in the period September 2013 to March 2014. The main finding of this thesis is that, foreign aid has brought political reform in Tanzania, which is highly manifested by the founding of multi-party system even though it is difficult to say that foreign aid has brought democratic consolidation in Tanzania, because a democratic consolidation embraces various features in it. There for, Tanzania can do much better in the consolidation of democracy in the country if she depends not largely on foreign aid but on here people, cultural system, experiences and values.
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Keywords
Foreign Aid, Donors, Democratic Consolidations, Bi-lateral, Multi lateral, Executive, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Sub Saharan Africa