ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Liberal Market Reforms and the Rise of Civil Society in Zimbabwe, The Contradictory Results of Structural Transformation and Possibilities for the Future
by
Bertha Chiroro
Student Witwaterand University, South Africa, Johannesburg Box 2050 Wits Department of Political Studies

Theme: Civil society,Solidarity and Economy-Is there another Economy. The shift in economic policy and Ideology in most African countries has been accompanied by significant changes in power relations among social groups and in the effectiveness of established institutions. Neo-liberal Market reforms have led to crisis and the breakdown of institutions. It has become common to observe that post independent structures in most African countries have began to breakdown and to be transformed. At the center of this transformation is the role of civil society. It has already been argued that the end of the cold war has caused a global crisis of authoritarianism (Joseph, 1999:59). These developments are part of the globalisation of Democracy and market fundamentalism. Whilst Globalisation is believed to have unleashed productive forces thruought the world, on the other hand it has engendered fragmentation and marginalisation. In African countries in which an economic crisis is not handled pro-actively there is bound to be a breakdown of the rule of law leading to total state collapse.

Zimbabwe has been no exception. In 1990 the country embarked on an IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) The government was mainly responding to the business sector which supported a shift from a centralised system of resource allocation to a market determined one. Social capital was very limited at that time and there was very limited participation by different social groups in the implementation of economic policy. The labour groups were still very unorganised and under the armpits of the state. The neo-liberal policies encountered a lot of criticism in the form of strikes and demonstrations which led to the strengthening of organised labour and other civic groups that demanded greater political and economic rights. There was strong criticism of the neo-liberal economic policies and their implementation.

This paper argues that a flawed implementation of liberal market reforms by an increasingly autocartic administration generated the social tensions and political energies that helped to mobilise civil society. A new citizen politics emerged in Zimbabwe. This new citizenship articulated a democratic philosophy. It has a broad constituency ranging from grassroots citizen organisations to new large national alliances between labour unions, political parties, intellectuals, proffessionals, community and church groups, women and civil rights groups and the business community. These groups do not necessarily agree on economic policy. Where do there solidarity lie? What type of citizenship is civil society advocating vis-a-vis the Market in Zimbabwe? What type of leadership is civil society advocating in order to have a sustained restructuring of economic and social relations? What type of economy will cater for this diversity of interests from the businessman to the workers and the politicians? In order to answer these questions a structured questionnare has already been administered to a sample of these different groups to find out their preference for economic policy in a future Zimbabwe

Date received: September 30, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caml-58.