Fixing the African State: Recognition, Politics, and Community-Based Development in Tanzania (Africa Connects)

'Community-based development' (CBD) or'community-driven development' (CDD) has been the predominant approach to international development in recent years. Drawing on fieldwork and first-hand experience, this book explains why CBD/CDD produces outcomes that are incompatible with its underlying assumptions and intended objectives. Fixing the African State explains why the predominant approach to international development produces outcomes that are incompatible with its underlying assumptions and intended objectives. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research undertaken in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania over the past decade, Brian J. Dill examines the relationship between community participation in the development process and the exercise of state power. Although the primary objective of community-based and -driven development is to shift the balance of power from the state to the benefit of non-state actors, Fixing the African State shows that, in fact, what is strengthened is both the image of a coherent, efficacious, and autonomous state, and the capacity of the state apparatus to exercise authority Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-34 “Developing” Dar es Salaam....Pages 35-57 Life on the Ground....Pages 59-71 Recognizing Community....Pages 73-99 Rendering Political....Pages 101-118 Fixing the African State....Pages 119-147 Conclusion....Pages 149-157 Back Matter....Pages 159-198