The Political Economy of Devolutionary Reforms: Implications of Power Politics on Zimbabwe’s Devolution Endeavour

Many countries across the globe have adopted devolutionary reforms, which transfer governing powers from the centre to subnational governments. This trend has been necessitated by the need to bring the state closer to the people; increase local democracy and citizen participation; and strengthen accountability and good governance in general. Zimbabwe adopted devolution in its Constitution of Zimbabwe (CoZ) (2013). However, nine years later, constitutional provisions for devolution have not yet been fully implemented. The reasons for such a disturbing trend have not yet been adequately studied from a political economy perspective. Guided by the political economy of decentralisation, this article drew evidence from an empirical qualitative study. The findings indicated that devolution is submerged in politics and concluded that, given opposition dominance in strategic provinces and cities and the threats they pose to the ruling regime, Zimbabwe has limited chances of successfully implementing devolution.