The Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania project is based at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Dar es Salaam. This is the second in a series of publications documenting scholarly opinions and research findings. Issues relating to Tanzania's political trends are discussed, with a focus on the political environment and processes that surrounded the run up to the October 1995 general elections. It brings together analytical discussions on why Tanzania is yet to establish an enlightened civil society, the weaknesses and prospects of the new political parties, and the gender imbalances and disadvantaged position of women as political actors.

Community-based development' (CBD) or'community-driven development' (CDD) has been the predominant approach to international development in recent years. Drawing on fieldwork and first-hand experience, this book explains why CBD/CDD produces outcomes that are incompatible with its underlying assumptions and intended objectives.

Full parliamentary democracy did not come quickly or easily to Tanzania. In 1962, the first constitution of Tanzania as an independent republic shifted power from parliament to the executive: specifically to the presidency. In 1965, the interim constitution further eroded the powers of parliament in favour of a one party state, controlled by the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). Parliament became little more than a token, rubber-stamping organisation. This multi-contributory study traces the development of multi-party democracy in Tanzania from the appointment of the first two chiefs to Tanganyika's colonial Legislative Council in 1945 to the present day. It highlights the struggle for supremacy between parliament and the executive during the period from 1968 to 1992, when parliament began to assert itself as a vibrant multi-party institution.

Since its founding in 1964, the United Republic of Tanzania has used music, dance, and other cultural productions as ways of imagining and legitimizing the new nation. Focusing on the politics surrounding Swahili musical performance, Kelly Askew demonstrates the crucial role of popular culture in Tanzania's colonial and postcolonial history. As Askew shows, the genres of ngoma (traditional dance), dansi (urban jazz), and taarab (sung Swahili poetry) have played prominent parts in official articulations of "Tanzanian National Culture" over the years. Drawing on over a decade of research, including extensive experience as a taarab and dansi performer, Askew explores the intimate relations among musical practice, political ideology, and economic change. She reveals the processes and agents involved in the creation of Tanzania's national culture, from government elites to local musicians, poets, wedding participants, and traffic police. Throughout, Askew focuses on performance itself—musical and otherwise—as key to understanding both nation-building and interpersonal power dynamics.