ABSTRACT
Tanzania continues to be at the center of a major debate on the precise nature and path of development. The ability of the political leadership to implement an International Monetary Fund program that conflicts with Tanzania's previous goals reflects an aspect of the political economy of Tanzania that requires investigation as the liberalization program unfolds. The legal entity called Tanzania is a union between the mainland country of Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar. The position of the theorists of liberalization was the local variant of a larger debate in Africa on structural adjustment and economic recovery. The liberalization process in Tanzania was an expression of a larger phenomenon in international politics in the decade of the new stage of finance capital. Tanzanian liberalization was faced with similar questions, not only in the context of the retreat from egalitarianism but also from the rampant authoritarianism and militarism on the African continent.
