In Defence of National Sovereignty? Urban Governance and Democracy in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Elections are usually regarded as an important measure of democracy as they constitute a “general indicator of the relationship between state power and different groups in society” (Laakso 1999:9). Democracy – however it is defined (Joseph 1999) – is in turn an indicator of urban governance. Using this framework of liberal democracy, pre-independence Zimbabwe can be judged as having been very undemocratic (Swilling 1997) and therefore badly governed (Global Development Research Centre (GDRC) 2000). The black majority did not have the vote in either national or local government elections. They were excluded through the adoption and application of several restrictive qualification criteria that included race, land tenure, income and property ownership. During the 1960s and 1970s, liberation movements waged a long struggle of independence, one of whose major aims was the extension of the vote to the black majority. Following independence and the triumph of the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), one of the two liberation movements, the urbanites who had been given the national vote through the promulgation of universal adult suffrage were not immediately granted the local vote. Understandably, the former liberation movement sought first to address pressing national issues before turning attention to local issues such as municipal council elections.