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T he 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

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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

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GRADUATE DIVISION
o f 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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The Humanitarian Hangover:

Transformation and Transnationalization o f Governmental Practice in Refugee-affected Tanzania
Copyright 2002
by

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Loren Brett Landau

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The dissertation o f Loren Brett Landau is approved:

ZCCZ

Date

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Chair

Muf gg,

(J

->

3lJ Zaa:
D ate

University of California, Berkeley

Fall 2002

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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

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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 influxthe arrival o f refugees and reliefon host communities

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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

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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 culturereplicating an instrument
administered in 1966among secondary school students.
Using M ills 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 Tanzanias national
regime o f governmental practice. Within this new regime, refugee-affected areas

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The Humanitarian Hangover Abstract

L Landau

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 actorsrefugees and aid agenciesare
being insinuated into logics o f causation and responsibility, contributing to the creation of
a platonic state that exists in the realm o f 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

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

iNvO a.

Date

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Chair

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The Humanitarian H ang o ver

L. Landau

Table of C ontents

Hi
rv
v/

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgements
List o f Acronyms
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

Literature Review and Conceptual Foundations

Historiographical and Methodological Foundations

16

Theoretical, Analytical, and Practical Payoffs

31

Nomenclature and Style

33

Structure o f Remaining Chapters

35

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 i o n , a n d D e s i c c a t i o n

Introduction

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C h a p te r

40

Genesis: Colonialism , Nationalism, and a Tanzanian Territory and Population

Departicipation: Ujamaa and the Consolidation o f the M onopolistic Party

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59

Desiccation: Economic & Administrative Crisis, Reform, and

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the C ollapse o f the Party-State

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The Platonic State and The Humanitarian Influx

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C h a p t e r T h r e e : T h e H u m a n i t a r i a n i n 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 P r a c t ic e

Introduction

The Humanitarian Influx in Fact and Policy

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101
107
121

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Structuring the Influx: Tanzanian Refugee Policy, Past and Present

Challenge without Transformation: Economics, Environment, and Material
Practice

The Perception and Reality' o f Changing Material Practice

147

C h a p t e r F o u r : P o l i c 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 i v e p r a c t i c e

Introduction
Legalization and Deformalization Defined
Coercive Mechanisms and Challenges to Existing Practice
The Official Response: Failed Legalization
Towards Deformalization and Spatialization

149
151
157
171
189

C h a p t e r F i v e : R e i f i c a t i o n , t e r r it o r i a l i z a t i o n , a n d T r a n s n a t i o n a l i z a t i o n

Introduction

192

D efining Reification, Territorialization, and Transnationalization

Reification and Territorialization in Kasulu

194
197

D esiccation, Disengagement, and Transnationalization

219

Transnationalization, Sovereignty, and Discourse

234

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The Humanitarian H ang o ver

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ii

C h a p t e r S ix : 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

237

The 2000 Local Government Reform Program

241

The Humanitarian Influx and the Challenge to Decentralization

243

Conclusions

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C h a pt e r S e v e n : T he H u m a n it a r ia n Ha n g o v e r

Introduction and Review o f Primary Questions

Review o f Findings
Explanations, Implications, and Directions for Further Research
Metaphors o f the State and Change

264
265
278
284

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

288

Archival Sources

308

Interviews
APPENDICES

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Published and Unpublished Works

309

I.

Map o f Tanzania Highlighting Research Sites

315
316

Map o f Kasulu V illages

Map o f M pwapwa V illages

IV.
V.

Map o f Refugee Settlements

Citizen Questionnaire (English)

318
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VI.
VII.

Citizen Questionnaire (Swahili)

Secondary School Survey (English)

326
333

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II.
III.

VIII. Secondary School Survey (Swahili)

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347

L. Landau

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The Hum anitarian H angover

L is t o f T a b l e s a n d F ig u r e s

Tables

3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4.1
4.2
4.3
4 .4
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5

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2 .7
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5

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2.5
2.6

Percentage o f Respondents by Level o f Education

Num ber o f Interviews by Location
Percentage o f Interviews by Location and Gender
Percentage o f Interviews by Location and A ge
Num ber o f Secondary School Student Respondents by Location
Percentage o f Secondary School Respondents by A g e and Location
Percentage o f Secondary School Respondents by Gender and Location
N um ber o f Ujamaa V illages in D odom a and K igom a
Primary Schools and Enrollment 1962-1989
Proportion o f Primary S ch ool-A ge Children in Primary Schools
Percentage o f Students M entioning Different A gents as
the B est Way to Learn about What is Happening in the Country
Problem s Facing the Country, by W eighted Indices
Percentage o f Respondents who said it would be
G ood (V ery good , good) or Bad (bad, very bad) i f the R efugees Left Tanzania
Percentage o f Respondents Identifying Sources o f National Pride
R efugees in Kasulu District and Tanzania
Comparative Prices for Basket o f G oods
Percentage o f Respondents by Location and W age Earners Primary Occupation
Percentage o f V illagers Em ploying Temporary Labor
Percentage o f Respondents Em ploying More or Less
Temporary Labor than Five Years A go
T obacco Production and Sales in Kasulu District
Comparative Index o f Changes in Material W elfare
Percentage o f Secondary School Students B elieving Their
L ives W ill B e Better Than Their Parents
Percentage o f Secondary School Students B elievin g Their
C hildrens L ives W ill Be Better Than Theirs
Percentage o f Respondents by District M entioning Reason for Increasing Crime Rate
Percentage o f Respondents by District Involved in Police Investigations
R espondents Reaction to an U nknown T h ie f by District
Respondent Reaction to a Known T h ie f by District
T he R elative Importance o f R eligion, N ation, and Tribe, by Indices
Percentage o f Secondary School Students Who A gree or Strongly A gree with the
Statement: T he Government K now s What Is B est for People
Percentage o f Respondents Possessing an Identification Card by Type
Percentage o f Respondents Identifying Government R esponsibilities
Num ber o f Government A gencies M entioned vs. International Organizations

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1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4

25
26
27
27
29
29
30
66
70
83
93
94
95
96
106
126
132
137
137
138
139
141
142
169
178
184
184
207
210
217
221
227

F ig u r e s
i.i

1.2
4.1
7.1

Integrated Transformatory A xes

Determinants o f Governmental Practices in R efugee-A ffected Areas
Crime Cases and R efugee Numbers
Kasulus Humanitarian Hangover in Comparative Perspective

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15
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The Humanitarian H angover

L. Landau

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

While it is impossible to show adequate appreciation for all those who have contributed to
this projects 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 Berkeleys African Studies Center,

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particularly Martha Saavedra. Outside of Berkeley I wish to recognize Liisa Malkkis direct and
indirect influence on this project and George Von der Muhlls willingness to share the original data
from his 1966 survey, even though it initially arrived in punch card format. Beth Whitakers
generosity in allowing me to read her unfinished dissertation provided considerable insight and

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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

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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 Chussis 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 Tanzanias 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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The Hum anitarian H angover

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Outside o f 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 Ndeoruos provided invaluable research assistance
and colorful commentaiy throughout the process.

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I am particularly indebted to Polly Dollan o f CARE International (Kasulu), one o f the few
Americans I encountered in rural Tanzania and organizer of Tanzanias only Ultimate league, and
the staffs o f Africare (Kasulu) and Christian Outreach (Kasulu). For their hospitality and insight, 1

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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

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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
UNHCRs 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 Foundations 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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T he H um anitarian H a n g o v e r

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ACRONYM S
A CORD

Agency for Cooperation in Rural Development

AHRBG

Anti-Hutu Revolution Burundi Group

ASP

A fro -S h ira z

CCM

Cham a cha Mapinduzi, Party of the Revolution

CNDD

Center for the Defense of Democracy

CUF

Civic United Front

P arty

CUT

Cooperative Union of Tanzania

CORD

Christian Outreach and Development

D A N ID A

Danish International Development Agency

DC

District Com m issioner

District Executive Director
Departm ent for International Developm ent

DW T

Diocese of Western Tanzania (Anglican)

EAC

East African Community

ECHO

European Community Humanitarian Office

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization

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DED
D F ID

F r o li n a

Front for National Liberation

G oT

Government of Tanzania

IC R C

International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent

IF A D

International Federation for Agricultural Developm ent (UN)

International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent
International Rescue Committee

K aD E P

Kasulu Developm ent Program

MHA

Ministry of Hom e Affairs (Tanzania)

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IF R C
IR C

Medicins sans Frontiers/Doctors without Borders

NARLEP

National Agricultural Research and Livestock Extension Program

NCCR- M

National Council for Constitutional Reform -M ageuzi

N ER P
NGO
NORAD

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MSF

National Economic Recovery Programme

Non-Governm ent Organization
Norwegian Agency for Developm ent Cooperation

P a lip e h u tu

Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People

PRA

Participatory Rural Appraisal

RAS

Regional Adm inistrative Secretary

RC

Regional Commissioner

RPF

Rwandan Patriotic Front

SAP

Structural Adjustment Program

SNV

Netherlands Development Organization

SPRAA

Special Programme for Refugee Affected Areas

TAA

T anganyika Africans' Association

TANU

Tanganyika Africa National Union

TCRS

Tanganyika Christian Refugee Services

TPDF

Tanzanian Peoples Defense Force

TTCL

Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited

TRCS

Tanzania Red Cross Society

USAID

Unites States Agency for International Developm ent

UNDP

United Nations Development Program

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L. Landau

The H um anitarian H an g o ver

U N IC E F

United Nations Children and Education Fun

UNHCR

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Umoja W anawake wa Tanzania, Tanzanian Women's Union.
Village Development Council

W FP

World Food Program

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UW T
VDC

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L. Landau

C hapter One: Normative, Academic, & Methodological Foundations

C h a p t e r O n e : N o r m a t i v e , a c a d e m i c , a n d M e t h o d o l o g i c 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 sitesone of which has been directly influenced by the sudden influx of tens o f thousands
of refugees and millions of aid dollarsI provide an example of how forced migration may lead
one countrys 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

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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,

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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 sign ifies a
precarious system ic state in which an organism or society hovers between decom position 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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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

insinuation o f new national and supra-national actors into what were predominantly localized
governmental logics. As these reconfigured relationships crystallize, we may discover that the
character o f 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 influxthe arrival of central African refugees,
millions o f aid dollars into Tanzanias Kasulu districthas interacted with existing patterns,
expectations, and strategies, to create a spatialized regime o f governmental practice.
This anomalous regime, the humanitarian hangover, possesses a set o f surprising, sometimes

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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.

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Indeed, with few exceptions, those in the affected areas continue the same kind o f small-scale
agriculture and petty trading that engaged them before the influx. Increasing rates o f crime have,

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however, catalyzed substantial shifts in practices, although not those that one might expect.
There has not been a fundamental breakdown in the socio-political orderalthough 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 groupsto address perceived injustices. This
disengagement from and contravention o f 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 o f the social service functions typically expected to fall within the states bailiwick. These

society and states that em erge after an extended period o f turbulence shall have been transformed, not
m erely restored (1994:51).

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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

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

Literature Review and Conceptual Foundations

This project emerges from an effort to integrate studies o f forced human migration a
subject o f growing relevance to todays socio-political landscape with one o f Political Sciences

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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,

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however, leads to an exploration o f violence and warfare rather than o f the state per se. Instead,
focusing on forced displacements transformatory effects on existing governmental practices in
host countries broadens our understanding of the refugee-experience while allowing instances

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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 o f contemporary social science Political Science in particularderive from and are
designed for exploring European and American events and phenomena.2 The almost total
absence o f formal quantitative data (e.g., public opinion polls, economic surveys) not to

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

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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

mention the technical and personal challenges for Euro-American researchershave 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 projects 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

Refugee and Forced Migration Studies

the African context.

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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-

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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

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governance and cooperation. Until recently, few explored the relationships between this
cooperation and the welfare or livelihoods o f 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 projects 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 worlds fourth poorest country, hosted over half a million o f the continents official refugees

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

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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

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 o f 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 o f displacement (natural disaster, war, etc.) and its
effects on the refugees themselves. These outcomes are measured in any number of ways, from

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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

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others take a more systemic approach, pointing to the roots o f the current humanitarian regime
and all of the contradictions, paradoxes, and failings therein. These include explorations of the

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definition o f 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 theorytypically
approach humanitarian action as yet another form o f 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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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

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

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important subset o f this work explores refugee-affected areas geographical and social sites in
which refugee and relief mechanisms interact with existing social and physical environments.

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While enhancing our comprehension of forced migration, these inquiries have, to borrow
Hakovirtas comment on Refugee Studies generally, tended to be short on precise concepts,

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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 estim ates from http://w w w .cia.sov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/t2 .himl accessed 21 M ay

2002 .

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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

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

Recognizing the need to rigorously explore refugees and humanitarian aids 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

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develops and operationalizes an analytical schema for assessing and comparing the long-term
effects o f a humanitarian influxthe sudden arrival o f refugees and reliefon host communities
regimes o f governmental practice. This analytic not only helps make sense o f the influxs
complex and far-reaching effects, but allows such findings to speak to broader social scientific

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themes and problematics. Indeed, by demonstrating that a humanitarian influx has induced a
spatialized and transnationalized variance in Tanzanias national regime o f practice, this project

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

transformation and the modem nation states 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 o f 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 projects 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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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

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 peoples 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 Tanzanias 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

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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 exploitrather 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,

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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 sociohistorical contexts, but it is by no means universal. Even the most rationalized political
systemto 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
Tanzanias under-resourced and weakly managed public administration where ministries and

4 For a more com plete resume o f these debates, see Joel M igdal (1997; 1994; 1988), Evans, e t al. (1985)
and Evans (1995). A s a testament to the acrimony and hostility associated w ith the campaign to Bring the
State Back In, see A lm ond (1990); Friedland and Alford (1991); M itchell (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 m ost vulgar terms,
Marxist thinkers have often view ed the State as either the executive com m ittee o f the bourgeois (Marx
1950) or, for those w ho grant it som e autonomy, as the agent o f global capitalism (W allerstein 1974).

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Chapter One: Introduction

L. Landau

agencies often work at cross-purposes, unaware of each others 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

contingencys role and the importance of considering a given states cultural, institutional,
historical, and geographic miluex (Jessop 1990:267-269; see also Ertman 1996; Tilly 1975). One

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must allow for the possibility that markedly different social contextseven within the same
countrywill produce effectively different manifestations o f the state at the local level. With

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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

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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 influxs 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 som ething o f a cash register totaling up societal
preferences and executing policy for the good o f all (Krasner 1989).

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