ABSTRACT
This chapter examines business and government relations in Zimbabwe. It argues that economic structural adjustment programs (ESAP) are an inappropriate public policy for Zimbabwe because they have negatively affected business and government relations in the country. The chapter addresses the premise of business and government relations and explains why the relationship might have both positive and negative impact of the economy of Zimbabwe. The fundamental macroeconomic problem in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s and two decades after was that the sum of what the government of President Robert Mugabe wanted and planned to do was greater than the resources available. Many economic problems of Zimbabwe are directly related to deregulation. SAP had mixed impacts on economic development and growth. Zimbabwe faces a bleak future because of the over-dependence on external financial inflows. The high levels of dependence on foreign aid equally cast a shadow on the impact of structural adjustment.
