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T h e H u m a n it a r ia n Ha n g o v e r : T r a n s f o r m a t io n a n d T r a n s n a t io n a l iz a t io n o f

G o v e r n m e n t a l P r a c t ic e in R e f u g e e -A f f e c t e d T a n z a n i a

by

Loren Brett Landau BA (University of Washington) 1994

MA (University of California, Berkeley) 1997

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirement o f the Requirements for the degree o f

Doctor o f Philosophy in

Political Science

in the

GRADUATE DIVISION

of the

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Committee in charge:

Professor David K. Leonard, Chair Professor Christopher K. Ansel 1

Professor Robert Price Professor Donald S. Moore

Fall 2002


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UMI Number: 3082268

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The Humanitarian Hangover:Transformation and Transnationalization o f Governmental Practice in Refugee-affected Tanzania

Copyright 2002

by

Loren Brett Landau


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The dissertation o f Loren Brett Landau is approved:

Muf gg, Z C C ZDateChair

(J -> 3lJ Zaa: Date

University of California, Berkeley Fall 2002


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1

Abstract

The Humanitarian Hangover:

Transformation and Transnationalization o f Governmental Practice in Refugee-Affected Tanzania

by

Loren Brett Landau

Doctor o f Philosophy in Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Professor David K. Leonard, Chair

Through a comparative study o f two rural Tanzanian districts, this dissertation

develops and operationalizes a schema for assessing and comparing the long-term effects

o f a humanitarian influx—the arrival o f refugees and relief—on host communities’

regimes o f governmental practice. Informed by both Foucauldian and Weberian insights

into power and discipline, this perspective reveals influx-related effects missed by more

materialistic analyses while also integrating forced migration into discussions of

citizenship, the state, and transnationalization. Over 100 villagers participated in this

study along with over a 100 UN, NGO, and government employees at the village, district,

regional, and national levels. The findings also rely on archival research and a formal

written survey (n=272) o f civic attitudes and political culture—replicating an instrument

administered in 1966—among secondary school students.

Using Mill’s ‘method o f difference,’ this study reveals that while the influx of

Burundian and Congolese refugees has not produced the deleterious economic and

environmental effects many claim, its effects on identity and perceptions o f law and

administrative responsibility have induced a spatialized variance in Tanzania’s national

regime o f governmental practice. Within this new regime, refugee-affected areas’


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L Landau The Humanitarian Hangover Abstract 2

permanent residents are strengthening their normative ties to a distinctly Tanzanian

population, territory, and state, even as economic and instrumental relations with, and

expectation for, these entities become fragmented and directed towards non-state actors.

In place o f government bodies, international actors—refugees and aid agencies—are

being insinuated into logics o f causation and responsibility, contributing to the creation of

a ‘platonic state’ that exists in the realm of virtue, ideals, and discourse. Such findings

problematize understandings o f the nation-state and highlight serious shortcomings in

dominant approaches to administrative reform. This project ultimately calls for a more

holistic and socially embedded vision o f the contemporary African state.

i£NvO a.

Chair Date


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover i

T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s

List of Tables and Figures HiAcknowledgements rvList o f Acronyms v/

C h a p t e r O n e : N o r m a t iv e , A c a d e m ic , a n d m e t h o d o l o g ic a l f o u n d a t i o n s

Introduction 1Literature Review and Conceptual Foundations 3Historiographical and Methodological Foundations 16Theoretical, Analytical, and Practical Payoffs 31Nomenclature and Style 33Structure o f Remaining Chapters 35

C h a p t e r Two: T h e P l a t o n i c S t a t e : G e n e s is , D e p a r t i c i p a t io n , a n d D e s i c c a t i o n

Introduction 40Genesis: Colonialism, Nationalism, and a Tanzanian Territory and Population 45Departicipation: Ujamaa and the Consolidation o f the Monopolistic Party 59Desiccation: Economic & Administrative Crisis, Reform, and 82

the Collapse o f the Party-State The Platonic State and The Humanitarian Influx 97

C h a p t e r T h r e e : T h e H u m a n it a r ia n in f l u x a n d C h a l l e n g e s t o M a t e r ia l Pr a c t ic e

Introduction 99The Humanitarian Influx in Fact and Policy 101Structuring the Influx: Tanzanian Refugee Policy, Past and Present 107Challenge without Transformation: Economics, Environment, and Material 121

PracticeThe Perception and ‘Reality' o f Changing Material Practice 147

C h a p t e r Fo u r : Po l ic e , V io l e n c e , a n d D e f o r m a l iz in g C o e r c iv e p r a c t ic e

Introduction 149Legalization and Deformalization Defined 151Coercive Mechanisms and Challenges to Existing Practice 157The Official Response: Failed Legalization 171Towards Deformalization and Spatialization 189

C h a p t e r F iv e : R e if ic a t io n , t e r r it o r ia l iz a t io n , a n d T r a n s n a t io n a l iz a t io n

Introduction 192Defining Reification, Territorialization, and Transnationalization 194Reification and Territorialization in Kasulu 197Desiccation, Disengagement, and Transnationalization 219Transnationalization, Sovereignty, and Discourse 234


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover ii

C h a p t e r S i x : T e c h n o c r a t ic H u b r is a n d D iv e r t e d D e c e n t r a l iz a t io n :

R e f o r m C h a l l e n g e s in R e f u g e e - a f f e c t e d T a n z a n i a

Introduction 237The 2000 Local Government Reform Program 241The Humanitarian Influx and the Challenge to Decentralization 243Conclusions 260

C h a p t e r S e v e n : T h e H u m a n it a r ia n H a n g o v e r

Introduction and Review o f Primary Questions 264Review o f Findings 265Explanations, Implications, and Directions for Further Research 278Metaphors o f the State and Change 284

B ib l io g r a p h y a n d s o u r c e s

Published and Unpublished Works 288Archival Sources 308Interviews 309

APPENDICES

I. Map o f Tanzania Highlighting Research Sites 315II. Map o f Kasulu Villages 316III. Map o f Mpwapwa Villages 317IV. Map o f Refugee Settlements 318V. Citizen Questionnaire (English) 319VI. Citizen Questionnaire (Swahili) 326VII. Secondary School Survey (English) 333VIII. Secondary School Survey (Swahili) 347


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover iii

L i s t o f T a b l e s a n d F i g u r e s

T a b l e s

1.1 Percentage o f Respondents by Level o f Education 251.2 Number o f Interviews by Location 261.3 Percentage o f Interviews by Location and Gender 271.4 Percentage o f Interviews by Location and Age 271.5 Number o f Secondary School Student Respondents by Location 291.6 Percentage o f Secondary School Respondents by A ge and Location 291.7 Percentage o f Secondary School Respondents by Gender and Location 302.1 Number o f Ujamaa V illages in Dodoma and Kigoma 662.2 Primary Schools and Enrollment 1962-1989 702.3 Proportion o f Primary School-Age Children in Primary Schools 832.4 Percentage o f Students Mentioning Different Agents as

the Best Way to Learn about What is Happening in the Country93

2.5 Problems Facing the Country, by Weighted Indices 942.6 Percentage o f Respondents who said it would be

Good (Very good, good) or Bad (bad, very bad) i f the Refugees Left Tanzania95

2.7 Percentage o f Respondents Identifying Sources o f National Pride 963.1 R efugees in Kasulu District and Tanzania 1063.2 Comparative Prices for Basket o f Goods 1263.3 Percentage o f Respondents by Location and W age Earner’s Primary Occupation 1323.4 Percentage o f Villagers Employing Temporary Labor 1373.5 Percentage o f Respondents Employing More or Less

Temporary Labor than Five Years A go137

3.6 Tobacco Production and Sales in Kasulu District 1383.7 Comparative Index o f Changes in Material Welfare 1393.8 Percentage o f Secondary School Students Believing Their

Lives Will B e Better Than Their Parents141

3.9 Percentage o f Secondary School Students Believing Their Children’s Lives Will Be Better Than Theirs

142

4.1 Percentage o f Respondents by District Mentioning Reason for Increasing Crime Rate 1694.2 Percentage o f Respondents by District Involved in Police Investigations 1784.3 Respondents’ Reaction to an Unknown T h ief by District 1844 .4 Respondent Reaction to a Known T h ief by District 1845.1 The Relative Importance o f Religion, Nation, and Tribe, by Indices 2075.2 Percentage o f Secondary School Students Who Agree or Strongly A gree with the

Statement: ‘The Government Knows What Is Best for People’210

5.3 Percentage o f Respondents Possessing an Identification Card by Type 2175.4 Percentage o f Respondents Identifying Government Responsibilities 2215.5 Number o f Government Agencies Mentioned vs. International Organizations 227

F ig u r e s

i . i Integrated Transformatory Axes 131.2 Determinants o f Governmental Practices in R efugee-Affected Areas 154.1 Crime Cases and Refugee Numbers 1637.1 Kasulu’s Humanitarian Hangover in Comparative Perspective 282


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

While it is impossible to show adequate appreciation for all those who have contributed to

this project’s completion, I wish to use this opportunity to recognize a few of those who showed me

favor o f their support, guidance, or friendship. In Berkeley my most obvious and greatest debts are

to my academic advisors and committee members, David K. Leonard, Chris K. Ansell, Robert M.

Price, and Donald Moore. Their accessibility in the face of heightening administrative and

academic burdens is particularly remarkable. I also owe considerable gratitude to Michael Watts,

Emst B. Haas, Ken Jowitt, Ted Miguel, and the staff of Berkeley’s African Studies Center,

particularly Martha Saavedra. Outside of Berkeley I wish to recognize Liisa Malkki’s direct and

indirect influence on this project and George Von der Muhll’s willingness to share the original data

from his 1966 survey, even though it initially arrived in punch card format. Beth Whitaker’s

generosity in allowing me to read her unfinished dissertation provided considerable insight and

practical guidance for my own work. I have also benefited from my fellow graduate students, at

Berkeley and elsewhere. In this regard I would to thank, in no particular order, Daniel Kronenfeld,

Anna Schmidt, Victor Peskin, Zach Elkins, Sally Roever, Leila Harris, Alex Perullo, Shalini

Satkunanandan, and John Sides. The members of my 'dissertation support group’, Ken Foster,

Laura Henry, and Ben Goldfrank, consistently endured my impenetrable drafts and returned

invaluable comments. For teaching me the basics of SPSS, special appreciation goes to Kathryn

Pearson. I must also not overlook Christine Chussi’s friendship and support.

Given their distance and inaccessibility, I fear that I can not even begin to pay back the

extensive debts of hospitality and guidance I accrued while in the field. At the University of Dar es

Salaam, Dean Rekaza Mukandala, Ambrose Kessey, Opportuna Kweka, and the staff of the Center

for Forced Migration helped me navigate Tanzania’s sometimes labyrinthine bureaucracy. In that

regard I wish to extend my gratitude to the Tanzanian Commission of Science and Technology for

eventually granting me a research visa and the family o f Hildebrand Shayo who proved gracious

hosts in Dar es Salaam during my seemingly interminable wait.


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover v

Outside of Dar es Salaam I am grateful to a wide range o f individuals and organizations,

many of which went far out of their way in providing logistical, technical, and occasionally

emotional and medical support. Needless to say, I appreciate the tolerance and cooperation of the

residents of Kanazi, Mugombe, Kasulu, Kibakwe, Kisokvve, and Mpwapwa. I hope that the mirth I

evidently brought to many (especially the children) as I made my way through the villages may

serve as at least partial compensation. 1 must also thank the staff and students of Kasulu, Bongwe

Mpwapwa, and Kibakwe secondary schools for allowing me to interrupt their classes to administer

a lengthy and often bewildering survey. Gilbert Ndeoruo’s provided invaluable research assistance

and colorful commentaiy throughout the process.

I am particularly indebted to Polly Dollan o f CARE International (Kasulu), one of the few

Americans I encountered in rural Tanzania and organizer of Tanzania’s only Ultimate league, and

the staffs o f Africare (Kasulu) and Christian Outreach (Kasulu). For their hospitality and insight, 1

wish to acknowledge Joseph Ketto, the staff of the Red Cross at Ngaraganza. Rukiat Omary of the

International Committee o f the Red Cross provided both friendship and access to a photocopier, two

invaluable and scarce resources in Western Tanzania. The British VSOs in Kasulu also deserve

recognition for their friendship and sometimes terrifying lifts on the back of their motorcycle. In

Geneva, I wish to thank Mariko Tomiyama for her hospitality and Jeff Crisp for a look behind the

UNHCR’s polished external image.

This project would not have been possible without the generous financial support I

received. The Federal Language and Area Studies (FLAS) scholarship program funded my first

three years at Berkeley, the Fulbright Foundation’s Group Project Abroad allowed me to improve,

but by no means perfect, by Swahili during a summer's language training in Tanzania. The

MacArthur and Rocca Foundations supported my extended research expedition.

Lastly I wish to thank my parents, Rebecca and Rubin Landau. Without their support, this

project would have never been started.


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L. Landau The Hum anitarian H angover

A C R O N Y M S

A CORD Agency for Cooperation in Rural DevelopmentA H R B G Anti-Hutu Revolution Burundi GroupA S P A fro-Shiraz PartyCCM Chama cha Mapinduzi, Party of the RevolutionCNDD Center for the Defense of DemocracyCUF Civic United FrontC UT Cooperative Union of TanzaniaCORD Christian Outreach and DevelopmentD A N ID A Danish International Development AgencyDC District CommissionerDED District Executive DirectorD FID Department for International DevelopmentDW T Diocese of Western Tanzania (Anglican)EAC East African CommunityECHO European Community Humanitarian OfficeFA O Food and Agriculture OrganizationF ro lin a Front for National LiberationGoT Government of TanzaniaIC R C International Committee of the Red Cross/Red CrescentIF A D International Federation for Agricultural Development (UN)IFR C International Federation of the Red Cross/Red CrescentIR C International Rescue CommitteeKaDEP Kasulu Development ProgramM HA Ministry of Home Affairs (Tanzania)M S F Medicins sans Frontiers/Doctors without BordersNARLEP National Agricultural Research and Livestock Extension ProgramN CCR- M National Council for Constitutional Reform-MageuziNERP National Economic Recovery ProgrammeNGO Non-Government OrganizationN O R AD Norwegian Agency for Development CooperationP a lip e h u tu Party for the Liberation of the Hutu PeoplePRA Participatory Rural AppraisalR A S Regional Administrative SecretaryRC Regional CommissionerRPF Rwandan Patriotic FrontS A P Structural Adjustment ProgramS N V Netherlands Development OrganizationS P R A A Special Programme for Refugee Affected AreasT A A Tanganyika Africans' AssociationT A N U Tanganyika Africa National UnionT C R S Tanganyika Christian Refugee ServicesT P D F Tanzanian People’s Defense ForceT T C L Tanzania Telecommunications Company LimitedT R C S Tanzania Red Cross SocietyU S A I D Unites States Agency for International DevelopmentUNDP United Nations Development Program


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L. Landau The Humanitarian Hangover

UNICEF United Nations Children and Education FunUNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesUWT Umoja Wanawake wa Tanzania, Tanzanian Women's Union.VDC Village Development CouncilWFP World Food Program


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L. Landau Chapter One: Normative, Academic, & Methodological Foundations 1

C h a p t e r O n e : N o r m a t iv e , a c a d e m ic , a n d M e t h o d o l o g ic a l f o u n d a t io n s

Introduction

This project is about the politics of rural Tanzania; it is an account of transitions, crises,

and transformations; what came before and what may come after. Through a comparison of two

similar sites—one of which has been directly influenced by the sudden influx of tens o f thousands

of refugees and millions of aid dollars—I provide an example of how forced migration may lead

one country’s complex political crises to induce the reconsideration and renegotiation of

governmental practices in another. This is a timely project that systematically explores a topic of

increasing importance throughout the world. In tracing the consequences of refugees and

humanitarian assistance on the lives and livelihoods of rural Tanzanians, I enhance our

understanding o f forced migration and analytically integrate the refugee experience with broader

social scientific debates. It provides both an empirical contribution and helps eschew mechanistic

and teleological models of rural political-economic transition and development by highlighting

the centrality o f historical contingency and local particularities in shaping the disciplines,

practices, and logics that buttress contemporary political configurations and state forms in Africa

and elsewhere.

The unanticipated arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and millions o f aid dollars

into a remote and poor district uniquely, if unfortunately, exposes states’ foundational

configurations. As this influx abruptly increases demands on communities’ material, social, and

administrative resources it may induce a crisis that opens novel and unexpected avenues for

renegotiating and transforming the ties between and among domestic and international actors.1

Such population, organization, and financial inflows also enable, if not necessitate, the

1 Maier writes that, “crisis is a strong and often overused term. Still, it is justified for it signifies a precarious system ic state in which an organism or society hovers between decomposition and a rallying o f collective energy. Undergoing a crisis does not preclude a recovery o f vitality, but it does suggest that the


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L. Landau Chapter One: Introduction 2

insinuation of new national and supra-national actors into what were predominantly localized

governmental logics. As these reconfigured relationships crystallize, we may discover that the

character of ties among permanent residents and their governing institutions has been

fundamentally altered. Through diachronic and geographic comparison, this study identifies,

documents, and explains how one humanitarian influx—the arrival of central African refugees,

millions o f aid dollars— into Tanzania’s Kasulu district—has interacted with existing patterns,

expectations, and strategies, to create a spatialized regime of governmental practice.

This anomalous regime, the humanitarian hangover, possesses a set o f surprising, sometimes

paradoxical, and theoretically noteworthy traits. For example, despite the presence of tens of

thousands of internationals (refugees, aid workers) and the economic and environmental pressures

associated with rapid population increase, the influx has not induced a substantial shift in

productive patterns or accelerated locals’ integration into a national or global capitalist economy.

Indeed, with few exceptions, those in the affected areas continue the same kind of small-scale

agriculture and petty trading that engaged them before the influx. Increasing rates of crime have,

however, catalyzed substantial shifts in practices, although not those that one might expect.

There has not been a fundamental breakdown in the socio-political order—although residents fear

mounting violence—nor have the Tanzanian police stepped in to protect citizens’ property, lives,

and livelihoods. Instead, citizens have either resigned themselves to greater danger or are

organizing themselves— individually or in groups—to address perceived injustices. This

disengagement from and contravention of supra-local legal standards denudes the state, obviating

one o f its most primitive functions: the provision of order and security. Moreover, the presence

and actions of resource-rich international aid and development agencies has transnationalized

many of the social service functions typically expected to fall within the state’s bailiwick. These

society and states that emerge after an extended period o f turbulence shall have been transformed, not merely restored” (1994:51).


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conditions make it all the more remarkable that the affected population is strengthening its

identitive links to the Tanzanian nation, its political leaders, and the physical territory they

inhabit. Against most theoretically informed expectations, those people living in the country’s

refugee-affected areas consider themselves more Tanzanian than ever before.

Literature Review and Conceptual Foundations

This project emerges from an effort to integrate studies of forced human migration—a

subject o f growing relevance to today’s socio-political landscape—with one o f Political Science’s

most enduring concerns: the state and its interconstitutive relationship with domestic and

international political communities and citizens. At one level the links between these two realms

o f inquiry are entirely too obvious: ‘failing states’ provide incentives for violence which produces

massive human displacement (see Keen 1998; Gurr 1991). Investigating this connection,

however, leads to an exploration of violence and warfare rather than of the state per se. Instead,

focusing on forced displacement’s transformatory effects on existing governmental practices in

host countries broadens our understanding of the ‘refugee-experience’ while allowing instances

o f migration and humanitarianism to serve as departure points for interrogating social scientific

theories of contemporary states and state-formation.

Launching this investigating in Africa has the added benefit of challenging the analytic

barriers between African Area studies and the methods and substance of more ‘mainstream’

social/political science. With few exceptions, the predominant problematics, language, and

methods of contemporary social science— Political Science in particular—derive from and are

designed for exploring European and American events and phenomena.2 The almost total

absence of formal quantitative data (e.g., public opinion polls, economic surveys)—not to

- Bayart (1993:5) speaks specifically to this challenge in suggesting that the typical classificatory schem es and m ethodologies em ployed within political science have been drawn up, refined, and discussed on the


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mention the technical and personal challenges for Euro-American researchers—have served to

exclude ‘Africa’, Africanists, and Africans, from broader debates, especially as American

Political Science increasingly fetishizes large ‘n’, quantitative studies. Topics and geographic

areas that were once central to the discipline have consequently fallen out of favor (see below). It

is hoped that this project’s conceptual rigor and ecumenical research design might go some way

to bridge this gulf. To augment our understanding o f a set of empirical events while

demonstrating the general value of comparative and theoretically informed studies undertaken in

the African context.

Refugee and Forced Migration Studies

Migration, forced and otherwise, has in the past been and important subject of social

scientific inquiry (see Petersen 1958; Mayer 1961; Pauw 1962; Hartz 1964; Hansen and Oliver-

Smith 1982; Cornelius 1988), but has since fallen into the realm o f ‘Development’ or Refugee

Studies’. For many years, international humanitarian action was similarly marginalized,

receiving attention only from practitioners or social scientists explicitly concerned with global

governance and cooperation. Until recently, few explored the relationships between this

cooperation and the welfare or livelihoods of those most directly affected by it. The end o f the

cold war and the proliferation o f complex humanitarian emergencies have marked a significant

renaissance o f academic interest in these phenomena. A brief statistical overview does much to

explain this. In 1980 there were 5.7 million officially recognized refugees worldwide. By 1995

that number had grown to 14.4 million. By January 2000, during this project’s research, it

reached 22.3 million (http://www.unhcr.ch). No region o f the world has been more affected by

these movements than sub-Saharan Africa which boasted 6.3 o f these refugees. Tanzania alone,

the world’s fourth poorest country, hosted over half a million o f the continent’s official refugees

basis o f historical experiences that exclude Africa. See also Moore (1986:329), Ranger (1996:272), and


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http://www.unhcr.ch


in 2000, and probably half that number again in unregistered exiles. With an estimated

population of 36,232,074, it is easy to understand why these migrants have received so much

popular, academic, and political attention.3

The lack of an expansive conceptual and methodological core has meant that studies of

forced migration have, however, either taken the form of single case studies or focused on a

narrowly defined set of issues. Many are quite naturally concerned with the refiigee-experience

per se, often attempting to document the cause of displacement (natural disaster, war, etc.) and its

effects on the refugees themselves. These outcomes are measured in any number of ways, from

the purely economic to the psychological or social (see Colson 1971; Harrel-Bond 1986). Others

examine the international relief apparatus’ organizational ‘pathologies’. The focus here is often

on technical or legal solutions to problems of service delivery, repatriation, and reintegration with

their concomitant effects on relief (Waters 2001; Goodwin-Gill 1983; Zolberg, et al. 1989). Still

others take a more systemic approach, pointing to the roots of the current ‘humanitarian regime’

and all of the contradictions, paradoxes, and failings therein. These include explorations of the

definition of refugees, the legal and political conditions under which international humanitarian

action is allowed, and their subsequent legal and political implications (Tuitt 1996; Zetter 1991).

A last group—nested in post-modernist anthropology and critical theory—typically

approach humanitarian action as yet another form of global regulation and normalization.

Drawing on the organizational pathologies others identify, they point to the precedence afforded

order and bureaucratic procedures (particular within refugee camps) over the welfare, livelihoods,

and ‘freedom’ or sovereignty of the refugees themselves (see Hyndman 2000,1996, Malkki 1992,

1995b). All of these strains continue today as more or less fruitful debates or discussions in

various sub-fields related to forced migration and humanitarianism.

Chabal (1996:29).


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There is little need to critically review these texts here, only to draw attention to the

refugee-centrism linking them all. Malkki speaks to this in suggesting that, for anthropologists at

least, “the term refugees denotes an objectively self-delimiting field of study” with its own biases

and language, and one that is limited largely to matters concerning the refugees themselves

(1995a:496). An emerging body of literature, however, is turning these inquiries’ logic on its

head. As refugees and humanitarian assistance are assigned analytical agency, they cease being

merely the outcomes of broader processes, but become actors in their own right effecting

substantial economic and political changes in countries of origin and first asylum (see Hollands

2001; Schmidt 1998; Black 1994). Inspired in large part by Chambers (1993) pithily titled,

‘Hidden Losers: The Impact of Rural Refugees and Refugee Programs on Poorer Hosts’, an

important subset of this work explores ‘refugee-affected areas’— geographical and social sites in

which refugee and relief mechanisms interact with existing social and physical environments.

While enhancing our comprehension of forced migration, these inquiries have, to borrow

Hakovirta’s comment on Refugee Studies generally, tended to be ‘short on precise concepts,

theoiy-building, and theory-based empirical research’ (1993: 36). The result is a series of case

studies and a concentration on refugees’ short-term material or psychological impacts (see

Damme etal. 1998; Jacobsen 1997; 1996; Black 1994; Bascom 1993; Kuhlman 1991; Kok 1989;

Hansen and Oliver-Smith 1982). Recent work, notably by Whitaker (1999) and Waters (1999),

demonstrates the need to explore the often more subtle and longer-term influences refugees and

relief have on host communities’ social and political configurations. Neither author, however,

provides a systematic or comparative framework for evaluating such influences.

3 Population estimates from http://www.cia.sov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/t2 .himl accessed 21 May 2002 .


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http://www.cia.sov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/t2.himl


The State & State-Society Relations: Governmentality and Governmental Practice

Recognizing the need to rigorously explore refugees and humanitarian aid’s socio

political effects is one thing, finding an appropriate means of evaluating them is quite another.

To avoid having to develop a completely novel approach, this study mines ongoing social

scientific debates and discussions to locate a series of questions, concepts, and methodological

devices that can provide the basis for sustained, comparative, and theory-building research.

Debates over the definition and delimitation of the state and its relationship to domestic and

international ‘society’ prove particularly rich ‘veins’. Informed by this work, this project

develops and operationalizes an analytical schema for assessing and comparing the long-term

effects o f a humanitarian influx—the sudden arrival o f refugees and relief—on host communities’

‘regimes o f governmental practice’. This analytic not only helps make sense o f the influx’s

complex and far-reaching effects, but allows such findings to speak to broader social scientific

themes and problematics. Indeed, by demonstrating that a humanitarian influx has induced a

spatialized and transnationalized variance in Tanzania’s national regime of practice, this project

ultimately demonstrates the need to reconsider established understanding of rural-political

transformation and the modem nation state’s functional and territorial foundations. Defining a set

o f metrics drawn from extant literature also allows the refugee experience to lend new empirical

and analytical weight to these ongoing conversations. What follows is a critical review of these

literatures, presented here with the exclusive purpose of elaborating a framework through which

to view and evaluate the changing political realities o f refugee-affected regions.4

This project’s primary claim is that a humanitarian influx has effected a spatialized

reconfiguration of the Tanzanian state. Such an assertion depends heavily on a clear

understanding o f what I mean by the state, and what I do not. For present purposes, the state


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should not be seen simply as a set of formal organizations existing to instrumentally meet the

needs o f society at large or a hegemonic group within or without a given political community (see

Jessop 1990:5; Stepan 1978).5 Although the Tanzanian political elite have long claimed to

represent the people’s interests, for example, they have frequently acted in ways that contravenes

the ‘general will’ and have actively suppressed the institutional and organizational mechanisms

through which social actors could make their will publicly known (see Chapter Two). Similarly,

there is little to justify claims that Tanzania’s central administration exists merely as a tool of an

international class or power.

This work takes seriously the neo-statists claim that the state, or elements thereof, should

be granted some analytical autonomy from society, however defined. Such distinction recognizes

that in addition to responding to popular pressures, political leadership can help to define a

population and shape its demands. The state may similarly mediate or exploit—rather than be

merely subject to— international influences and actors (see Evans 1995; Johnson 1982; Levy

1999). I do not, however, accept the notion that the state should, a priori, be viewed as a unitary,

goal-oriented actor. Such a perspective may be accurate on the international stage (e.g.,

Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs negotiating with international donors) or in certain socio-

historical contexts, but it is by no means universal. Even the most rationalized ‘political

system’—to borrow a dated term (Easton 1965)— is wrought by cracks and internal conflicts

within even that realm which might sensibly be considered ‘the state’. This is especially so given

Tanzania’s under-resourced and weakly managed public administration where ministries and

4 For a more com plete resume o f these debates, see Joel Migdal (1997; 1994; 1988), Evans, e t al. (1985) and Evans (1995). A s a testament to the acrimony and hostility associated with the campaign to ‘Bring the State Back In’, see Almond (1990); Friedland and Alford (1991); Mitchell (1991).

D Although not necessarily concerned with the ‘state’, both Marxist and Pluralist thinkers have been regularly faulted for adopting this rationalistic and instrumental perspective. In the most vulgar terms, Marxist thinkers have often viewed the State as either ‘the executive com m ittee o f the bourgeois’ (Marx 1950) or, for those who grant it som e autonomy, as the agent o f global capitalism (Wallerstein 1974).


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agencies often work at cross-purposes, unaware of each other’s mandates and actions. The

presence of internal divides within and among state agencies, therefore, speaks to the need to

understand how various elements of the state and society interact and how the boundaries

between official and social organizations, be they real or perceived, are established. While

‘locals’ (e.g., citizens, residents) may see the state as a unified, purposive whole existing in a

realm distinct from society, more careful analysis often reveals that the state manifests itself

differently in across time and space (see Mitchell 1991).

Accepting that state varies across time and space draws attention to historical

contingency’s role and the importance of considering a given state’s cultural, institutional,

historical, and geographic miluex (Jessop 1990:267-269; see also Ertman 1996; Tilly 1975). One

must allow for the possibility that markedly different social contexts—even within the same

country—will produce effectively different manifestations o f the state at the local level. With

this I move away from the neo-Statists and towards a perspective influenced by the French

Marxian scholar Nicos Poulantzas (1969,1979[1974]). Instead of viewing the state as simply a

tool of the bourgeoisie (domestic or international), Poulantzas argues that state power emerges

from social relations, produced and reproduced through the interactions o f bureaucratic state

institutions and class forces. While this perspective is still too aggregative—failing, for example,

to problematize ‘class’ as the most salient mobilizational and analytical strategy and focusing

unduly on state efforts to control society— it opens important avenues for further inquiry.

Michel Foucault, himself trained in French Marxist thought, gets us very close to the

analytical lens needed to make sense o f the humanitarian influx’s socio-political consequences.

His work on governmental science and ‘governmentality’ elaborates and qualifies Poulantzas’

ideas by conceptualizing the state as a set of organizations emerging from and constantly

Pluralists have been criticized for seeing the state as something o f a ‘cash register’ totaling up societal preferences and executing policy for the good o f all (Krasner 1989).


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