Société québécoise de science politique

Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania, 1964-73 by W. Edmund ClarkReview by: Cranford PrattCanadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique, Vol. 12, No. 3(Sep., 1979), pp. 663-664Published by: Canadian Political Science Association and the Société québécoise de science politiqueStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3230195 .

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du tout certain que cela suffise, car il y a aussi actuellement une dependance culturelle, militaire et politique des pays sous-developpes face aux pays riches. Meme le droit international est contest6 pour avoir 6te elabore au moment ofu la plupart des pays sous-d6veloppes n'avaient pas atteint le statut d'Etats souverains. C'estpourquoi les politologues doivent rappelerque le nouvel ordre que l'on exige doit etre en derniere analyse un nouvel ordre politique international.

Par consequent, la these principale de l'auteur doit etre fortement nuancee. Toutefois, cette reserve n'est pas telle qu'elle nous empeche de recommander la lecture de cet ouvrage. Car on y trouvera une introduction pertinente pour l'6tude des relations Nord-Sud laquelle, a notre sens, deviendra de plus en plus essentielle pour toute analyse serieuse du systeme international.

GORDON MACE Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, Geneve

Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania, 1964-73 W. Edmund Clark Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978, pp. xvi, 319

Public Finance studies by economists often are marked by a sharp dichotomy between the detailed research on public finance matters that form their core and the conclusions that their authors wish to draw from their research. It is easy to see how this happens. The detailed research often raises very interesting questions of why these patterns have emerged and of how the economic policies of the governments being studied can be improved. Yet, typically, public finance experts, though intrigued by these questions, are not professionally trained to answer them, nor is their research really related to them.

Edmund Clarke's excellent Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania 1964-73 illustrates this dilemma. The main portion of this book is a masterful analysis of public investment in Tanzania in the years 1964-73. This is a period of particular interest, as Tanzania in 1967 committed itself to a socialist transformation of its society. Clark is thus able to demonstrate the ways in which this socialist commitment did-and did not-influence the expenditure of public investment funds. He does this with great skill, presenting analysis of the development expenditures of government ministries and of the investments of public corporations that are far more refined and sophisticated than any previously available.

Clark's analysis reveals amongst other things that the commitment to socialism has had a greater impact upon social welfare expenditures than upon activities related to economic development. Despite the emphasis on rural socialism since 1967 there was very little increase in the proportion of development expenditures devoted to agriculture. Similarly, despite an ideology that suggests a preference for small-scale, labour-intensive, geograph- ically-dispersed manufacturing enterprises, the actual investments have tended to be large-scale, capital-intensive and based in one or another of very few urban areas. All of this and much more is presented in fascinating detail and with economy and clarity. As a result Clark's book is essential reading for any student of contemporary Tanzania.

Clark, however, has wanted as well to speculate on why public investments have developed as they did and to discuss the investment strategy that would be most appropriate to a socialist Tanzania. Indeed he devotes chap. 7 to

du tout certain que cela suffise, car il y a aussi actuellement une dependance culturelle, militaire et politique des pays sous-developpes face aux pays riches. Meme le droit international est contest6 pour avoir 6te elabore au moment ofu la plupart des pays sous-d6veloppes n'avaient pas atteint le statut d'Etats souverains. C'estpourquoi les politologues doivent rappelerque le nouvel ordre que l'on exige doit etre en derniere analyse un nouvel ordre politique international.

Par consequent, la these principale de l'auteur doit etre fortement nuancee. Toutefois, cette reserve n'est pas telle qu'elle nous empeche de recommander la lecture de cet ouvrage. Car on y trouvera une introduction pertinente pour l'6tude des relations Nord-Sud laquelle, a notre sens, deviendra de plus en plus essentielle pour toute analyse serieuse du systeme international.

GORDON MACE Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, Geneve

Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania, 1964-73 W. Edmund Clark Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978, pp. xvi, 319

Public Finance studies by economists often are marked by a sharp dichotomy between the detailed research on public finance matters that form their core and the conclusions that their authors wish to draw from their research. It is easy to see how this happens. The detailed research often raises very interesting questions of why these patterns have emerged and of how the economic policies of the governments being studied can be improved. Yet, typically, public finance experts, though intrigued by these questions, are not professionally trained to answer them, nor is their research really related to them.

Edmund Clarke's excellent Socialist Development and Public Investment in Tanzania 1964-73 illustrates this dilemma. The main portion of this book is a masterful analysis of public investment in Tanzania in the years 1964-73. This is a period of particular interest, as Tanzania in 1967 committed itself to a socialist transformation of its society. Clark is thus able to demonstrate the ways in which this socialist commitment did-and did not-influence the expenditure of public investment funds. He does this with great skill, presenting analysis of the development expenditures of government ministries and of the investments of public corporations that are far more refined and sophisticated than any previously available.

Clark's analysis reveals amongst other things that the commitment to socialism has had a greater impact upon social welfare expenditures than upon activities related to economic development. Despite the emphasis on rural socialism since 1967 there was very little increase in the proportion of development expenditures devoted to agriculture. Similarly, despite an ideology that suggests a preference for small-scale, labour-intensive, geograph- ically-dispersed manufacturing enterprises, the actual investments have tended to be large-scale, capital-intensive and based in one or another of very few urban areas. All of this and much more is presented in fascinating detail and with economy and clarity. As a result Clark's book is essential reading for any student of contemporary Tanzania.

Clark, however, has wanted as well to speculate on why public investments have developed as they did and to discuss the investment strategy that would be most appropriate to a socialist Tanzania. Indeed he devotes chap. 7 to

663 663

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Recensions / Reviews Recensions / Reviews

explanations of the pattern of investment and the last two chapters to an assessment of several Marxist critiques of Tanzania's socialist strategy and to the elaboration of an investment strategy which he feels is most appropriate to Tanzania. In all this, he writes perceptively and, often, persuasively. For example, he argues tellingly against those Marxists who favour a major emphasis on industrialization. Instead, he urges that the primary emphasis must be on the development of increased productivity amongst the great mass of the rural population. Without that, he fears Tanzania will become an increasingly less egalitarian society, dominated by the urban employed who will capture most of the benefits of whatever development occurs.

These last chapters are certainly interesting. However, they do illustrate the point made at the beginning of this review. They take Clark into issues, decisions and activities that were not the subject of his original research. As a result, though they are likely to be of wider interest than the rest of the book, they lack the authority of the main body of the book and stand apart from it. They are much more a sketch of some interesting ideas and reflections on socialism in Tanzania than a fully-documented and sustained presentation.

CRANFORD PRATT University of Toronto

The Military and Politics in Modern Times: On Professionals, Praetorians, and Ordinary Soldiers Amos Perlmutter New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977, pp. xix, 335

In the foreword of this book, Samuel P. Huntington notes that the past two decades have witnessed a veritable flood of analysis on the role of the military in politics. With few exceptions, these analyses have been focussed on specific regions, specific states, specific military coups or specific military governments. As a part of the same flood, a number of quantitative attempts to describe, explain, and predict military intervention and coups as well as to evaluate the subsequent socioeconomic and political impact of successful coup makers has also been advanced. "Left wanting [according to Huntington] was the imposition of some conceptual order on this material and the placing of it in a broader theoretical perspective," an ambitious task, indeed, and one which Amos Perlmutter has assumed as his mission in The Military and Politics in Modern Times.

One might think (perhaps hope?) that such a synthesizing effort would entail establishing a foundation by first providing an extensive and critical review of the existing literature on civil-military politics. Revealingly, Perlmutter chooses not to do this. Instead, he prefers to cite studies which he interprets as supportive of his own views or, alternatively, to pick out targets of opportunity which his own thesis is intended to supplant. Equally revealing, Perlmutter's main thesis seems to represent not so much a full-blown theory of military intervention as it does a substantial modification of Hungtington's 1957 (The Soldier and the State) emphasis on the relationship of professionalism to civil-military relations. Whereas Huntington argued, rather tautologically, that the development of military professionalism was responsible for the subordination of the military to the civilian authority because professional soldiers, by definition, accept political subordination, Perlmutter contends that it is the corporate and not the professional orientation of the military which determines the character of its political behaviour.

explanations of the pattern of investment and the last two chapters to an assessment of several Marxist critiques of Tanzania's socialist strategy and to the elaboration of an investment strategy which he feels is most appropriate to Tanzania. In all this, he writes perceptively and, often, persuasively. For example, he argues tellingly against those Marxists who favour a major emphasis on industrialization. Instead, he urges that the primary emphasis must be on the development of increased productivity amongst the great mass of the rural population. Without that, he fears Tanzania will become an increasingly less egalitarian society, dominated by the urban employed who will capture most of the benefits of whatever development occurs.

These last chapters are certainly interesting. However, they do illustrate the point made at the beginning of this review. They take Clark into issues, decisions and activities that were not the subject of his original research. As a result, though they are likely to be of wider interest than the rest of the book, they lack the authority of the main body of the book and stand apart from it. They are much more a sketch of some interesting ideas and reflections on socialism in Tanzania than a fully-documented and sustained presentation.

CRANFORD PRATT University of Toronto

The Military and Politics in Modern Times: On Professionals, Praetorians, and Ordinary Soldiers Amos Perlmutter New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977, pp. xix, 335

In the foreword of this book, Samuel P. Huntington notes that the past two decades have witnessed a veritable flood of analysis on the role of the military in politics. With few exceptions, these analyses have been focussed on specific regions, specific states, specific military coups or specific military governments. As a part of the same flood, a number of quantitative attempts to describe, explain, and predict military intervention and coups as well as to evaluate the subsequent socioeconomic and political impact of successful coup makers has also been advanced. "Left wanting [according to Huntington] was the imposition of some conceptual order on this material and the placing of it in a broader theoretical perspective," an ambitious task, indeed, and one which Amos Perlmutter has assumed as his mission in The Military and Politics in Modern Times.

One might think (perhaps hope?) that such a synthesizing effort would entail establishing a foundation by first providing an extensive and critical review of the existing literature on civil-military politics. Revealingly, Perlmutter chooses not to do this. Instead, he prefers to cite studies which he interprets as supportive of his own views or, alternatively, to pick out targets of opportunity which his own thesis is intended to supplant. Equally revealing, Perlmutter's main thesis seems to represent not so much a full-blown theory of military intervention as it does a substantial modification of Hungtington's 1957 (The Soldier and the State) emphasis on the relationship of professionalism to civil-military relations. Whereas Huntington argued, rather tautologically, that the development of military professionalism was responsible for the subordination of the military to the civilian authority because professional soldiers, by definition, accept political subordination, Perlmutter contends that it is the corporate and not the professional orientation of the military which determines the character of its political behaviour.

664 664

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.108 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 13:04:00 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions