Yeah, what he said

I am not posting much these days because USAID’s expectations of what I am supposed to achieve in three weeks in Tanzania are completely unrealistic. So instead of witty insight from me today, you can read this.

Investing in politics

The role of business people in politics is a big issue here in Tanzania as it is in many countries. Many people view the issue cynically: business people go into politics solely to use the political process to increase their profits. While this is part of the reason, I also believe there exists a more charitable explanation. Like many developing countries, Tanzania’s regulatory institutions are weak. As a result, business people often need powerful political allies to protect their investments. Business people may thus see going into politics as an investment when regulatory institutions are weak. While collective action to produce a better regulatory climate may be the socially optimal outcome, collective action problems make individual political action – investing in politicians or becoming one – the rational strategy.

I wish Tanzania had press freedom

Tanzania does not have extensive press freedom. Transparency in media ownership is a problem as well. This is making for a rather frustrating experience in attempting to map politics in Tanzania. While business people with close connections to the ruling party own lots of newspapers, self-censorship and opaque ownership structures make interpreting the news a bit of a challenge. Instead of naming people, articles use terms like “certain people.” Moreover, vague discussions of issues make it difficult to determine substantive differences on issues from personal vendettas. A free press and clear knowledge of who owns what would make my job a lot easier. Ugh!

My government doesn’t understand Tanzania

I am in Tanzania for a few weeks doing a political analysis of the country for USAID. I read the US government’s Country Assistance Strategy for Tanzania this afternoon. It was a bit maddening:

• Even though Tanzania does not have a problem with terrorism, the country’s problem with terrorism was in the first paragraph.
• Even though Tanzania is politically stable, the first paragraph notes that Tanzania’s (non-existent) problem with terrorism could undermine its stability.
• Even though there are no extremist movements in Tanzania, the first paragraph highlights this non-existent problem.

As a result of Tanzania’s fictional problems cited above, the US assistance strategy is to help fight terrorism in Tanzania – a problem which does not exist. Ugh!

Road trip!

Technically speaking, a plane trip. I am off to Tanzania tomorrow to do a Democracy and Governance assessment for USAID. Basically, I’ll be spending the next three weeks in Tanzania talking to politicians. I sense some good stories coming out of this.