ABSTRACT
Neo-Marxists maintain that the country offers textbook examples of economic dependency and periphery capitalism. In terms of combining social equity and basic-needs satisfaction with governmental stability and mass political participation, the Tanzanian experiment has already accomplished more than can be claimed for most other African countries. The urban population has doubled since Clark wrote, but Tanzanians remain overwhelmingly rural. Tanzania’s domestic predicament is clearly related to its peripheral role in the international political and economic systems. The most positive preliminary conclusion to be reached about the Tanzanian experiment is that rewards are possible for each of the country’s ideological, patrimonial, and bureaucratic elite groups and for the people as a whole. Since the Arusha Declaration, the state has indeed been used in attempts to mold Tanzanian society in the often flawed images of its leaders’ perceptions and goals for the future.
