Corruption and Militarization as Obstacles to Development and Democracy

Abstract

The menace of institutionalized corruption accounts for the stalled development of Zimbabwe despite the country being ranked among the economic giants in Southern Africa in the early 1980s. The chapter explores the trend of the dialectic nexus between the intensified militarization of the state and the rising levels of corruption in Zimbabwe. The nation's fragility is typical of the perpetual decay of norms-based governance at the mercy of the military. Consequently, a fragile state with a militarised executive tends to neutralize and weaken good governance structures such as the judiciary, military, and civil society. Corruption is not new in Zimbabwe, but after the 2017 military coup, the evident military cronyism in political appointments serving economic interests of the elite, which was somewhat clandestine under Mugabe's rule, coincides with high and rising levels of corruption without legitimate checks.