Ethnicity, voting and the promises of the independence movement in Tanzania: the case of the 2010 general elections in Mwanza

This dissertation explores the influence of ethnicity on determining votersU+2019 choices in Tanzania. The issue of explaining ethnicity and voting in Tanzania is puzzling. The puzzle stems from the fact that Tanzania is less ethnically politicised compared to most African states, despite being ethnically diverse with over 120 ethnic groups, sharing the colonial history and an ongoing anxiety about competitive politics and liberal economics breeding ethnic salience in voting. The overriding literature on influences of ethnicity on voting in Africa revolves around the paradigms of ethnic structure and neo-patrimonial or hybrid systems. Whereas the concept of ethnic structure contends that salience of ethnicity in voting is determined by the ability of ethnic groups to form a minimum winning coalition (MWC) in elections, the neo-patrimonial and hybrid schools explain the same from AfricaU+2019s presumed traditional primordialism U+2013 as opposed to legal-rational institutions of governance (LRIs) or historically grown values preventing ethnic voting. The assumption of ethnic motivations and the reference to traditional structures has long concealed the role of shared history, political thoughts and innovative practices in TanzaniaU+2019s management of ethnicity, particularly in votersU+2019 choices in elections. Such backdrop warranted exploration of an alternative analytical framework. This study developed an analytic narrative method that mainly relied on interviews with privileged witnesses as well as ordinary voters (65). The fundamental factor, we established, in explaining ethnicityU+2019s low salience in votersU+2019 choices in Tanzania has been the Promises of the Independence Movement (PsIM), namely a political imaginary about realising and enhancing promises of national unity (PNU), equitable distribution of national resources (EDNR) and peace. The PsIM in sum created a nationalist political culture against ethnic polarisation and salience in politics capable of sustaining low salience of ethnicity in voting for 50 years after independence. Based on the interviews, we reject the neo-patrimonial theory and hybrid schools and brand them as inadequate tools for understanding the significance of ethnicity on determining votersU+2019 choices in Tanzania. The rejection is predicated on the fact that the Tanzanian case does not support the primary tenets of the theory in divulging the influences of ethnicity on voting as explained above. Ideals deduced from a nationalist political culture as embedded in the PsIM, informed legal rational rules and institutions, values as well as experiences that militate against the salience of ethnicity on determining electoratesU+2019 choices. On this basis, we can give credit to, but also critically examine, the indigenous political thoughts informed by African political thought and practices that determine voting practices.

Jaar van publicatie:2016

Toegankelijkheid:Open