Political decentralisation and political-administrative relation in the local councils in Tanzania

Wilfred Uronu Lameck

Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal, 2023, vol. 26, issue 3, 335-344

Abstract: Purpose - This paper analyses the degree of political decentralisation and its relation to the local councils in Tanzania. It explores the institutional and political set-up of the local councils originating from the degree of political decentralisation and how it influences the tension between the bureaucrats and local politicians. Design/methodology/approach - Qualitative approach by a comparative case study is adopted to investigate the phenomenon in two local governments in Tanzania. The data were collected through interviews with 37 senior local government officials and eight focus group discussions with 48 administrators and councillors. Findings - The findings indicate that the two local governments are subjected to a similar political system guided by similar rules and guidelines from the central government bureaucracy for implementing the party manifesto and central government priorities. Thus, the local politicians have little room for negotiation in adopting local agenda to reflect the preferences of the local community. Any attempt to challenge this status quo creates political tensions between bureaucrats and the administrators. Originality/value - The findings provide invaluable insights to different stakeholders such as political scientists, government officials, and policymakers with interests in research or practice of political decentralization and political-administrative relation.

Keywords: Local council; Political decentralisation; Political-administrative relation; Local government authorities; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:pappps:pap-07-2022-0077

DOI: 10.1108/PAP-07-2022-0077

Access Statistics for this article

Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal is currently edited by Professor Peter K.W. Fong

More articles in Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().