Tanzania under Dependency and Neo-Liberalism Periods: Examination of Economic Theories since Independence

The paper discusses development theories that underpinned Tanzania’s economy in the past five decades in the pursuit of development and poverty alleviation. The paper discusses modernization, dependency, and neo-liberalism. It proposes and discusses an alternative development model that the country can adopt to realise development and accelerate poverty reduction. Tanzania became a developmental state during the period of the state-led economy under the influence of dependency theory, through Ujamaa. However, due to some domestic and international factors, the country abandoned that development pathway and moved on to attaining its development agenda without a specific model. Findings have revealed that both dependency and neo-liberal policies had limited success in achieving the country’s development agenda and poverty reduction. Therefore, the paper proposes that Tanzania adopts an alternative development model and shifts the attention from economic growth to economic development.