Socialist development in an underdeveloped country: The case of Tanzania

The author attempts to draw on the experience of Tanzania in order to provide some comments on socialist investment strategies. Tanzania has been more successful in reorienting its programme of social investment than its investment programme for economic development. This failure stems from real differences within Tanzania, and among socialists generally, about appropriate socialist investment strategies for a country at Tanzania's stage of development. It also reflects the fact that socialism in Tanzania is a change imposed from the top, and the bureaucracy remains relatively immune from the pressures of the people and the poverty in which they live.