Redistribution with Growth - and/or Transition to Socialist Development: Some Jottings on Tanzania 1961-74

Tanzania's 1961-74 political economic dynamic is examined with emphasis on strategic themes, major changes and critical obstacles, and the pace of change. A brief summary of 1961-73 development covers income distribution, mode of production, mass needs and growth of productive forces. The political nature of the planning process, the pattern of political-technical interaction and the stress on utilizing crises for advance rather than retrenchment are central to an understanding of Tanzanian political economic change. TANU's role as the dominant political force and the potentially retarding interests of high level manpower and rural elites are noted as well as the special problems of informal sector development in the context of a transition to socialism. The ways in which Tanzanian experience is relevant to other peripheral economies—and the hazards in attempting to make such generalizations—are considered briefly.