How bad government can ruin a country: the case of Zimbabwe
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The history of Zimbabwe is a portrait of decay and mismanagement that ruined a once-thriving economy. With its sophisticated institutions, a stable banking system, a manufacturing base and a highly-capitalised farming industry, Zimbabwe inherited the richest, most developed land in Africa after South Africa. An economic history of Zimbabwe thereafter provides a classic example of how populism can trump reason; how readily world leaders who should have known better became so easily beguiled; and how a false god became a liberation icon to fellow African leaders. It is a sad story often neglected, partly because ‘optimists’ in the West, who had enthusiastically greeted the birth of Zimbabwe and the incumbency of Mugabe, became reluctant to accept their error.
David Gadiel is a Senior Fellow in the Health Program at The Centre for Independent Studies. He emigrated from Zimbabwe in the 1960s (then Southern Rhodesia) and is a former development economist.
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