Performing partnership: civil society and the illusions of good governance in Tanzania

The predicament of heavily indebted states is often marginalised in discussions of globalisation. This paper examines the experience of one heavily indebted African state, Tanzania, with recent IMF, World Bank and international donor initiatives to foster ‘good governance’ and ‘partnership’ in African countries within an overall framework of debt relief and continued adjustment. The paper focuses on the experience of civil society’s engagement with the emerging structures of governance, highlighting the contradictions of ‘partnership’ and the poverty of participation. The paper concludes that civil society’s involvement in governance structures in Tanzania engages it in a performance of partnership in the interests of ‘good governance’ which serves to legitimise continued adjustment.