Building democracy from below

A case from rural Tanzania

Bibliographic Data

ID4253308
AuthorsKarrie Ann Snyder (0000-0001-8772-9782, Queens College, CUNY, corresponding author), Katherine A Snyder
Year2008
Volume46
Issue2
Pages287-304
Publication date2008-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Modern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-278X • E-ISSN: 1469-7777
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022278x08003236
OpenAlexW2159160336
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited43

Focusing on events in a rural village in Tanzania during 2001-02, this paper examines the changing nature of state/society relations in Tanzania. Drawing on experience from previous years of fieldwork in the early 1990s, it becomes apparent that villagers are beginning to change the way they engage with the state. These new approaches are framed in part by the discourse of democracy, with which Tanzanians have become familiar since the economic and political liberalisation policies of the 1990s. These events reveal a new sense of the right to participate in decision-making on how to use key development resources. They also illustrate how local elites can threaten to capture benefits for their own gain. As Tanzanians begin to demand more rights to participate in the public sphere, their achievements enlarge our understanding of what might constitute civil society

Civil society · Democracy · Economic growth · Economics · Key (lock) · Liberalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Rural area · Rural society · Socioeconomics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Tanzania · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Law · Public Administration

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