IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v15y2003i4p457-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The political economy of Zimbabwe's descent into conflict

Author

Listed:
  • Tony Addison

    (World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU|WIDER), Helsinki, Finland)

  • Liisa Laakso

    (Department of Political Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract

The last two years have seen intensifying political violence in Zimbabwe. Could Zimbabwe slide further into political and economic turmoil? Or are there sufficient checks and balances in the social system to halt decline? The paper argues that the failed economic stabilization of the 1990s led to increased support for the opposition movement, especially among the middle-class and trade unionists who were hit by high inflation. The veterans of the liberation war and peasants-who are the power base of the ruling party both ideologically and as voters-also became increasingly disgruntled as they had received very little after independence while the leadership had enriched itself. The government was able buy the loyalty of the war veterans and to use them to intimidate the opposition, although it does not have full control over their actions. The paper concludes that democratic forces within civil society can play an important role in conflict prevention and resolution by building bridges between the different dissatisfied groups. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Addison & Liisa Laakso, 2003. "The political economy of Zimbabwe's descent into conflict," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 457-470.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:15:y:2003:i:4:p:457-470
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jid.996
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.996?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tony Addison & Philippe Le Billon & S. Mansoob Murshed, 2002. "Conflict in Africa: The Cost of Peaceful Behaviour," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 11(3), pages 365-386, September.
    2. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 1998. "On Economic Causes of Civil War," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 563-573, October.
    3. Rohrbach, David D., 1989. "The Economics of Smallholder Maize Production in Zimbabwe: Implications for Food Security," Food Security International Development Papers 54060, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Udechukwu Ojiako & Tinashe Manungo & Max Chipulu & Johnnie Johnson, 2013. "The Impact of Regulation on Risk Perception: Evidence from the Zimbabwean Banking Industry," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(3), pages 276-288, September.
    2. Tony Addison, 2015. "Thirty years in Africa's development: From structural adjustment to structural transformation?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-119, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. de Felice, Damiano, 2015. "Diverging Visions on Political Conditionality: The Role of Domestic Politics and International Socialization in French and British Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 26-45.
    4. Zikhali, Precious, 2008. "Tenure Security and Investments: Micro-evidence from Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme," Working Papers in Economics 321, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Kate Bird & Martin Prowse, 2008. "Vulnerability, Poverty and Coping in Zimbabwe," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-41, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Tony Addison, 2005. "Agricultural Development for Peace," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-07, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Miguel Rocha de Sousa & Vanessa S. Duarte, 2016. "Don´t do Land Reform: a simple theorem," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 6(4), pages 1210-1210.
    8. Liisa Laakso, 2005. "Beyond the Notion of Security Community: What Role for the African Regional Organizations in Peace and Security?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-52, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Miguel Rocha de Sousa, 2009. "The political economy of Land Reform: A new perspective applied to Latin America," Economics Working Papers 08_2009, University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal).
    10. Zikhali, Precious, 2008. "Fast Track Land Reform, Tenure Security, and Investments in Zimbabwe," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-23-efd, Resources for the Future.
    11. Tony Addison, 2015. "Thirty years in Africa's development: From structural adjustment to structural transformation?," WIDER Working Paper Series 119, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Deininger, Klaus & Castagnini, Raffaella, 2006. "Incidence and impact of land conflict in Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 321-345, July.
    13. Precious Zikhali, 2010. "Fast Track Land Reform Programme, tenure security and investments in soil conservation: Micro‐evidence from Mazowe District in Zimbabwe," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(2), pages 124-139, May.
    14. Kinsey, Bill H., 2004. "Zimbabwe's Land Reform Program: Underinvestment in Post-Conflict Transformation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1669-1696, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jose Cuesta & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2012. "On the micro-foundations of contract versus conflict with implications for international peace-making," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 1250009-125.
    2. Mirjam E. Sørli & Nils Petter Gleditsch & Håvard Strand, 2005. "Why Is There So Much Conflict in the Middle East?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(1), pages 141-165, February.
    3. Henry, Alexandre, 2019. "Transmission channels of the resource curse in Africa: A time perspective," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 13-20.
    4. Jose Cuesta & Mansoob Murshed, 2008. "The Micro-foundations of Social Contracts, Civil Conflicts and International Peace-Making," Research Working Papers 8, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    5. José Cuesta & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2008. "Las Micro-Fundaciones de contrato frente a conflictos con consecuencias en la paz internacional," Research Department Publications 4592, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    6. Joeri Smits & Yibekal Tessema & Takuto Sakamoto & Richard Schodde, 2016. "The inequality-resource curse of conflict: Heterogeneous effects of mineral deposit discoveries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-46, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Päivi Lujala & Nils Petter Gleditsch & Elisabeth Gilmore, 2005. "A Diamond Curse?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(4), pages 538-562, August.
    8. Joeri Smits & Yibekal Tessema & Takuto Sakamoto & Richard Schodde, 2016. "The inequality-resource curse of conflict: Heterogeneous effects of mineral deposit discoveries," WIDER Working Paper Series 046, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Kyle Beardsley & Brian McQuinn, 2009. "Rebel Groups as Predatory Organizations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 53(4), pages 624-645, August.
    10. Tony Addison & S. Mansoob Murshed, 2003. "UNU|WIDER Special issue on conflict. Explaining violent conflict: going beyond greed versus grievance," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 391-396.
    11. Arne Schollaert & Dirk gaer, 2009. "Natural Resources and Internal Conflict," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 44(2), pages 145-165, October.
    12. Alexandre Henry, 2019. "Transmission channels of the resource curse in Africa : A time perspective," Post-Print hal-03488691, HAL.
    13. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    14. Ola Olsson, 2005. "Geography and institutions: Plausible and implausible linkages," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 167-194, December.
    15. Ravallion, Martin, 2019. "Global inequality when unequal countries create unequal people," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 85-97.
    16. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2002. "AID, Policy and Peace: Reducing the risks of civil conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(6), pages 435-450.
    17. Francesco Amodio & Leonardo Baccini & Michele Di Maio, 2021. "Security, Trade, and Political Violence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37.
    18. Elisabeth Gilmore & Nils Petter Gleditsch & Päivi Lujala & Jan Ketil Rod, 2005. "Conflict Diamonds: A New Dataset," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(3), pages 257-272, July.
    19. Phoebe W. Ishak & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2022. "Oil price shocks, protest, and the shadow economy: Is there a mitigation effect?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 298-321, July.
    20. Ang, James B. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2018. "Agricultural yield and conflict," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 397-417.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:15:y:2003:i:4:p:457-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.