Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe

The political arena is now abounding with people who either live ‘off ’ or ‘for’ politics. The ferocious competition for people’s votes is akin to economic competition, and as this study submits, the politicians are just like business people. Both productive and predatory profi t opportunities ha...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tarugarira, Gilbert
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Sciences , University of Pretoria 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5032
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1779905218773778432
author Tarugarira, Gilbert
author_facet Tarugarira, Gilbert
author_sort Tarugarira, Gilbert
collection DSpace
description The political arena is now abounding with people who either live ‘off ’ or ‘for’ politics. The ferocious competition for people’s votes is akin to economic competition, and as this study submits, the politicians are just like business people. Both productive and predatory profi t opportunities have pervaded the Zimbabwean political arena, where politics is a type of business. Political positions have afforded some people access to economic resources, making politics the quickest way to untold and unending riches. As a result, the political landscape has invited abuse of power, thereby decimating not the physical being but the entire moral fi bre of the nation. This study shows how Zimbabwean political leaders have become the primary controllers and distributors of power and resources with the capacity to penetrate society politically and secure their hegemony. Reference is made to politicians belonging to the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), where politicians from either party have exhibited, though not uniformly, patterns of misconduct characteristic of political entrepreneurship. This paper applies the entrepreneur’s theory to political behaviour to identify political entrepreneurs and analytically distinguish them from other government agents.
format Article
id ir-11408-5032
institution My University
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Department of Political Sciences , University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
spelling ir-11408-50322022-08-02T18:11:17Z Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe Tarugarira, Gilbert Entrepreneurship Resources Politics Vote The political arena is now abounding with people who either live ‘off ’ or ‘for’ politics. The ferocious competition for people’s votes is akin to economic competition, and as this study submits, the politicians are just like business people. Both productive and predatory profi t opportunities have pervaded the Zimbabwean political arena, where politics is a type of business. Political positions have afforded some people access to economic resources, making politics the quickest way to untold and unending riches. As a result, the political landscape has invited abuse of power, thereby decimating not the physical being but the entire moral fi bre of the nation. This study shows how Zimbabwean political leaders have become the primary controllers and distributors of power and resources with the capacity to penetrate society politically and secure their hegemony. Reference is made to politicians belonging to the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), where politicians from either party have exhibited, though not uniformly, patterns of misconduct characteristic of political entrepreneurship. This paper applies the entrepreneur’s theory to political behaviour to identify political entrepreneurs and analytically distinguish them from other government agents. 2022-08-02T18:11:17Z 2022-08-02T18:11:17Z 2021-12-30 Article 1013-1108 DOI: https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v43i2.384 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5032 en Strategic Review For Southern Africa;Vol. 43, No 2 open Department of Political Sciences , University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Entrepreneurship
Resources
Politics
Vote
Tarugarira, Gilbert
Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title_full Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title_short Dynamics of Political Entrepreneurship among the Elites in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
title_sort dynamics of political entrepreneurship among the elites in post-colonial zimbabwe
topic Entrepreneurship
Resources
Politics
Vote
url http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5032
work_keys_str_mv AT tarugariragilbert dynamicsofpoliticalentrepreneurshipamongtheelitesinpostcolonialzimbabwe