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Tanzania is usually presented as the most stable state is East Africa. Nevertheless political stability did not go hand in hand with economic development. The recent gas discoveries raised the issue of Tanzania’s readiness for the development of gas sector that will benefit the entire country instead of the rent orientated political elite. The development of the gas sector (although final decision about LNG terminal construction has not been taken yet) is correlated with President John Pombe Magufuli ( JPM) takeover of power and substantial changes on Tanzanian political scene. The Authors posed a question about the basis for a robust mining sector development in Tanzania under President Magufuli. The article’s first part presents Tanzania within the frameworks of “competitive-authoritarian regime” or “developmental neopatrimonial state”. Then we ask whether the system that catapulted JPM to the top job in the country can be change from the inside? Subsequently, we present dysfunctionalities of the Tanzanian mining sector with the special emphasis on gold mining, as well as challenges ahead of the country’s nascent natural gas sector.

After many countries that had embarked upon transitions in the 1980s and 1990s failed to become consolidated democracies, political scientists highlighted the widespread emergence of hybrid regimes, which combine authoritarian and democratic features. Scholars argued such regimes were stable, with some positing that quasi-democratic institutions actually strengthened authoritarianism. But an examination of competitive authoritarianism (CA)—the most prominent of these hybrid types—suggests instability is the norm. Of 35 regimes identified as having been CA between 1990 and 1995, most have either democratized or been replaced by new autocracies. Furthermore, quasi-democratic institutions often contributed to CA’s breakdown. In short, hybrid regimes have not become a new form of stable nondemocratic rule.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to three intertwined urbanization dynamics. First, it is the least urbanized but most rapidly urbanizing region in the world. Second, its cities often score poorly on indexes of global or world cities, yet economic and cultural globalization have defined urban forms and functions here as much or more than in any other global region. Third, its urban areas contribute the least to causing global climate change among cities of any region, yet its cities face severe negative impacts. This paper investigates urban governance in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya in the context of these broader dynamics. These cities make a fascinating contrast in contemporary urban planning and climate change in Africa. This essay argues for the importance of understanding the archaeology (figuratively) of the state over the last half century in order to explain the contrast, and extends this archaeology to an insistence on appreciating the particularities of place for analysis of urbanization in Africa.

In the early 1990s, political changes in Tanzania led to political liberalization and the reintroduction of formal democratic institutional structures. Political pluralism was established under the control of the ruling party of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which gave it the opportunity to maintain state power, stability within the party and to establish limitations in terms of systemic changes. However, the party’s hegemony was shaken during the last presidential election, where only a slight majority (58%) was won by CCM’s candidate John P. Magufuli. From the moment of taking office as President, he began to implement his electoral postulates. In 2016, Magufuli was appointed the world’s best president by United National Economic and Social Council for tightening and reducing public sector spending. There is no doubt that during the two and a half years of rule, Magufuli introduced significant changes in the governance structures and lives of Tanzanian people. However, his recent methods of governing the state seem to ignore basic human rights, women’s rights, freedom of speech and the press, the independence of courts and respect for the multi-party system in the country.