An Institutional Diagnostic of Tanzania’s Development

Abstract

The final chapter first aims to synthesise what has been learned from the previous chapters, emphasising the institutional challenges that have been identified there and identifying the main common factors behind those challenges, as well as the policies and reforms most able to weaken their effects. Most of the identified institutional challenges in theTanzanian economy result from a small number of basic institutional weaknesses, which logically form the core of our final diagnostic. In turn, these weaknesses are shown to be the symptoms of dysfunctional institutions that the diagnostic seeks to identify by delving into the proximate causes of identified weaknesses, and then by investigating the deep political economy factors likely to prevent corrective action. Even though political economy considerations rarely lead to consensual policy reform recommendations, they may point to general principles that may guide the reflection of policy makers, political actors, and civil society when thinking of potential reforms. The concluding pages of the chapter insist that transparency and accountabilty are two of these principles.