Ideology as a determinant of economic systems : Nyerere and ujamaa in Tanzania

Incentives are not always of an economic kind, Stefan Hedlund and Mats Lundahl stress in this study of the role of ideology in Tanzanian development. The first part of the study offers a general discussion of the relation of goals, incentives and ideology in the economic systems context. the role of incentives in economic systems is presented. a classification of systems according to their goal structure is made. Ideology as a system determinant and the connection between ideology and incentives are discussed. The second part deals with the emergence of Nyerere's concept of African socialism and how this ideology influenced the incentive structure in the Tanzanian economy after the Arusha Declaration in 1967. The third and final part discusses the practical problems of implementing the economic strategy dictated by the socialist ideology in connection with the ujamaa drive and the subsequent villagization program