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Andrew Coulson gives an account of the political economy of Tanzania, from pre-colonial times to the present. He shows the strengths and weaknesses of Julius Nyerere, the leader who brought the country to Independence in 1961. A new introductory chapter to this second edition sets the book in context and discusses current issues such as natural resources.

ABSTRACT
The reviewed book is a collection of studies of rural villages in Tanzania over periods of 20 years or more. Many of the villages changed dramatically in that period, and many of the villagers were able to improve their lives. However, the ways that assets in rural areas are treated in both Household Budget Surveys and GDP figures does not fully reflect these changes, leading, all too easily, to underestimations of the potentials for improvement in villages such as these in rural Africa.

ABSTRACTThis article uses the story of cotton cultivation in Tanzania to analyse critically the processes of liberalisation and expose the failure of markets to reward quality production. It starts by summarising the technological requirements to grow the crop. It then shows how cotton was central to industrialisation, in Britain and elsewhere. In Tanzania, cotton is grown on small farms and so the article then summarises how small farmers make choices and minimise risks. This creates the context for outline histories, first of cotton growing, and then of textile industries in Tanzania, before turning to the impact of structural adjustment and liberalisation in the late 1980s and 1990s which led to increases in production but losses in quality and price. The article draws conclusions from this about the role of agriculture in processes of economic transformation and the need for institutions which represent the economic interests of small farmers.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees were introduced in England and Wales in the Local Government Act 2000 that ended the role the full council and its committees as the locus of decision‐making for most local authorities. Overview and scrutiny committees composed of councillors not on small decision‐making executives were tasked with holding these to account. The performance of scrutiny committees is variable. Generally they work best where they concentrate on reviews of policy and practice, with recommendations following from well‐researched reports. The paper reviews the difficulties which arise when scrutiny committees endeavour to hold powerful executives to account, and suggests that to strengthen this new legislation is required, in particular to institutionalise scrutiny committees as agencies of the full council, the representative body for the area, comparable to the way in which the select committees at Westminster are the agencies of the Parliament.