Provides an economic history of Tanzania since independence in 1961. It covers the policies of African Socialism and the Arusha Declaration, the collapse of the early 1980s, the relationship with the IMF, and the reforms of the 1990s and 2000s.
Does foreign aid really help developing countries to develop? Or does it stand in the way of development by enabling corrupt and repressive regimes that pursue inappropriate economic policies? Sebastian Edwards important volume on Tanzania provides compelling answers. With carefully marshalled economic data, Edwards shows that foreign aid may have been a critical factor in enabling the government of Tanzania to pursue economically ruinous economic policies during the two decades following independence. Beginning in the early 1980s, however, pressure from the foreign aid community was at least equally important in convincing Tanzania to undertake needed and beneficial economic reforms and in providing resources to carry out these reforms.