Suchergebnisse

One of the most significant elements of globalisation is the way in which the reshaping of the public-private divide is transforming the relationship between state and economy. In industrialised economies, there is a growing commodification and privatisation of public services, undertaken through the establishment of public private partnerships. State policy is becoming increasingly 'market-driven', managing national politics in such a way as to adapt to the pressures of transnational market forces (Leys, 2001). In developing economies, structural adjustment has removed the state as the principal agent of development, while private agencies are playing an increasingly public role as they engage in public service delivery. These include non-profit organisations (churches and NGOs) and for-profit caregiving and educational institutions (van Rooy & Robinson, 1998). In the political arena, the discourse over donor-defined democratisation has also meant a larger political role for a differentiated set of private agents, in the name of civil society participation, prompting Schmitz & Hutchful (1992) to call this a recipe for 'free markets and free votes'.

The article sets out to understand the option for labour represented by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a movement made up of a wide cross section of groups opposing ZANU‐PFs twenty‐one year hold on power, with key leadership coming from the labour movement. The article seeks to understand the nature and potential for change embodied in the MDC given its alliance with groups from below, often labelled civil society or new social movement.
It documents labour's radicalisation, moving from the shop floor into broader political action and alliance‐building and eventually into a direct partisan challenge for political power in the 2000 parliamentary elections. It analyses MDC policies, finding a seemingly contradictory emphasis on participation and social democracy, alongside the proposals for a mixed economy involving international donors and investors, with a moderate state role whose objective is to create employment and alleviate poverty. These policies reflect the loose alliance making up the MDC, ranging from citizen, labour and human rights groups, with some commercial farmers and industrialists. The challenge is to maintain support from the various interests within this common front as it consolidates itself into a party, capable of putting forward a national project. This requires a struggle between competing interests, and it is labour's actions within this struggle and its outcome that will ultimately define labour's options within this new grouping.

The two articles are revised versions of papers presented at the end of May 2004 to a Zimbabwe Conference at the Nordic Africa Institute, which was co-organised by the project "Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa" (LiDeSA). They highlight current socio-economic aspects of Zimbabwean society. By doing so, they raise relevant issues, yet ones that have tended to be neglected given the almost exclusive concentration on political events. While this is understandable, the articles fill the gap in our knowledge and add insights into important sectors of society. These include information on the Zimbabwean economy and the present constraints of the decline, which together help us to understand the structural legacy that any future government will have to deal with. What is more, the elections in Zimbabwe in 2005 provide an ideal moment to discuss such matters. This Discussion Paper will thereby make a substantive contribution to the analysis of the overall picture in Zimbabwe. CONTENT Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Zimbabwe's Development Impasse. Suzanne Dansereau From Social Justice, to Neo-liberalism, to Authoritarian Nationalism - Where is the Zimbabwean State going? Mario Zamponi