Tanzania: Decentralising Power or Spreading Poverty?
June 2008
Arrigo Pallotti (Review of African Political Economy, 116, June 2008, pp.221-35)
Investigates the complex relationships between the decentralisation reform and implementation of the 1999 land laws in the rural areas of Tanzania. Considers the political implications of the neo-liberal citizenship model the reform tries to promote at the local level, with a particular focus on its link with the implementation of the Village Land Act of 1999. Concludes that these policies will have far-reaching effects on resource access and democracy at the local level.