The Opposition, Elite Competition and the Interplay of Political Conflict in Zimbabwe, 1980 – 2000

Abstract

The experiment with liberal democracy in Zimbabwe in the first two decades of independence revolved around five major problems: first, the controversy over the prospect of a one-party state; second, the marginalization of, and problem of weak opposition parties until the year 2000; third, the combinations and compromises between competitors for power which led to the dominance of one-party politics; fourth, the strength of the state vis-à-vis that of society, as manifested in the desire of the state for  predominance, in which the society remained at the mercy of the ruling party and the state; and finally, the authoritarian political authority of Robert Mugabe as reflected in his great personal power within his party and the state This paper is an attempt to explain the origins of the problem and the nature of the struggle for power in Zimbabwe, providing an analytical account of the interplay of political conflict in the competition between the ruling elite and the  opposition from 1980 to 2000. The outbreak of civil war in Matabeleland in the first decade of independence did much to intensify the bitterness of political intolerance. From 1990-1995, the opposition agenda was  interpreted as problem of elite completion but as political crisis lingered from 1996-2000, the wind of change led to the emergence of the Movement for Democratic Change MDC) that provided the stimulus for a new social basis of opposition politics in 2000.